The International Yeerk Resistance
by Mandy Kay Miller
Summary: What the Animorphs don't know is that there are people in many different countries who are also fighting the Yeerks. And when Visser One plans a visit to Spain, they're ready to kill her, even after meeting the Animorphs who followed her there.
1. Andalucia, Spain

Andalucía, Spain

"¡Beto! ¡Beto!"

The African-American boy turned around and saw Lola running after him, trying to catch up. He stopped and patiently waited for her. Beto was more of a gentleman than anything else. He always had time for other people. "¿Qué pasa?" he asked when she got to him.

Lola made a quick and easy switch to English. "Did you hear about the people in Italy?" she asked him. Both of their English skills were good… far better than anyone else's around. They used it so that it would be harder for others to pick up on what they were talking about. It was standard in their country that everyone be educated in English, but few took it as seriously as they had. They needed to speak it well, quickly, and with as little of a Spanish accent as possible so that others couldn't understand.

"What people in Italy?" he asked.

She handed him a clipped-out article from the newspaper. The story hadn't been on the front; it was obvious that it was a more buried one, because the font of the heading was small. However, small or not, it was still there. The title: Italy Loses Five Teens. Beto scanned the article, trying to take in as much of it as he could as quickly as possible, and then he looked at Lola. "Is this… this isn't…?"

Lola nodded. "Yes it is. They're dead. And do you know who killed them?"

Beto didn't bother to ask her who; he was pretty sure he had an idea. "Did you tell anyone else yet?"

"Only Luz. We need to meet after school… we received another letter from Germany, anyways."

Beto nodded. Their friends in Germany sent them letters now and then about the Yeerk invasion, using a "code" in case the letters were stolen, lost, or something else unfortunate happened. The six Spanish kids always replied, though the letters often took a long time to send. Sometimes they would also communicate through e-mail, but never phone. The Germans had called the Spaniards only once before, and then they only talked about normal things... not the Yeerk invasion.

After school the Spaniards met in what they'd affectionately dubbed "the dungeon." It was a small storage room in their school that was cold and dusty, and one had to go through a million locked doors to get there. They informed a teacher of their cause a long time ago, and he always let them in.

There were six of them. Six Spanish saviors of the world. Ana and Luz came down together, Lola found her own way, and the three boys – Beto, Raúl, and Pepe – came down together.

Once everyone was there, Lola showed the newspaper article. "One of the Italian groups died yesterday," she announced. "At least, that's what I think. Five teenagers who were unnamed died at the same time, same place, same way. Their bodies were burned."

Everyone looked at the others, surprised. Raúl decided to speak up. "We don't know what this weapon is called, but we do know they have something that specializes in burning objects."

Lola nodded. "I think the evidence for it being the Yeerks is fairly strong. I don't know what group they'll target next, but we need to be ready. It could be us."

"It looks like the Yeerks are trying to finish off all the international groups," Pepe stated. "Obviously, we can't let that happen."

"How's America?" Ana asked. "The invasion is strongest there. We need them."

"Nothing's happened there yet," Luz answered. "Or, not to our knowledge. I'm trying to get names so we can make ourselves known to that group over there, but they're really watching their backs. Which, I guess, is a good thing. I'll keep trying to get ahold of them. Next order of business: Germany's letter."

Raúl reached in his backpack and pulled out an envelope. In it were two pieces of paper… one was the original letter to them. The second was the note after it had been decoded.

"It's shorter than most," Raúl opened. "It says:

¡Hola, españoles!

We all hope you're still going strong. We're glad to report that three Yerks were starved yesterday, and we have two more that we're working on right now, but they'll probably be dead by the time you get this letter. How are your numbers still coming? We're sorry to hear that business is slow, but it might be a good thing.

On to official business, we hear that Visser One is planning a trip to Spain. This is a popular rumor that we've heard from one of our five groups in America, Singapore, and Japan. We don't know if she is doing it to oversee your execution or for another reason. We also don't know where in Spain. To be honest, we don't even know if this is just a rumor or if it is true. Her host's name is Eva Monzolaz, but unfortunately, that's all the information we know right now. See what you can do, and we will notify you immediately if we find out anything else.

Well, I guess that's about all we have to say. E-mail us once you find out more about Visser One, and if there's any other urgent news. We're eager to find out how this all goes.

Keep fighting, and stay strong. Remember the cause.

-Manny, German Yeerk Resistance Director"

"They got five Yeerks," Lola stated. "That's good."

"Raúl, write back," Beto told him, taking charge. "Tell them about Italy… see if they know anything. And why don't you mention Russia." There were no rebel groups in Russia, and they had been trying to break through and find someone there to fight. Manny had offered to buy some plane tickets and fly some people to Russia, as he came from a wealthy family. Then they would be able to find someone to "open up a network" there. The only problem was that people at home would notice their being gone.

"Beto? Our computer whiz?" Lola said. "See if you can break through any securities they have on Visser One and find Eva Monzolaz on a plane."

"What if they have a private plane?"

"They'd still need to reserve a runway, right? Find something… anything."

"Now, look," Raúl began. "This opens up a huge can of worms that I don't think Manny's aware of. If we find her, we should kill her right away. Yeerk, human, and all. Visser One is smart, and she might think of a way to get out. Even if not, she's the Yeerk Queen or something, right? So they'll come for her and break her out. It's best we get rid of her right away."

Beto and Luz nodded, Lola looked unsure, and Ana and Pepe disagreed. Their faces all showed their positions.

"She has a human host," Ana said. "What if that host has a family?"

"It doesn't matter," Beto said. "We're killing his wife or her mother to save their lives. Someone has to die; this is a war we're fighting."

"But we can avoid it," Pepe argued. "When we started this thing, we all agreed that there would be no unnecessary killing."

"Yes, and I won't deny that," Luz spoke up. "The only issue that's debatable is whether or not this is necessary. I think it is. We need to kill her, because otherwise she might find a way out. It's too risky. We _need_ that Yeerk dead at all costs."

"So do we take a risk or save a life?" Beto summed up. "Keep in mind, amigos, that this isn't a poker game risk. We're betting with the world's lives. So maybe the real question is: do we possibly kill millions or definitely kill one?"

"The ratio is too much to too little. We need to get rid of Visser One, and that's all there is to it," Raúl insisted.

Lola voiced her own opinion cautiously, like she was unsure of what she was saying. "Well, what if Beto checked to see if she has a family? If she doesn't we kill her. If she does, we starve the Yeerk."

"So we leave our decision to chance?" Luz challenged. "If she just-so-happens to have a daughter, we risk it? Besides, where do we draw the line? If she has an aunt, does that count? A husband, no kids? A step-dad? What would we classify as 'family?' She probably has some sort of relative."

"Exactly," Ana said. "She probably has at least three relatives, friends are assumed… we can't kill her."

_"Everyone_ has relatives and friends," Raúl said. "It's irrelevant. We just need to get rid of her; that's our job. We need to do it."

"Let Germany decide," Pepe suggested. "Manny is really smart, and his rebels are the head, anyways. Tell them to take a vote and tell us what to do."

"I'll e-mail them," Ana said. "It's faster."

"You know the code?" Raúl asked. She shook her head. "It took me two months to learn that code. _I'll_ e-mail them."

"You realize that if the Yeerks ever crack that code, they can intercept all of our messages?" Beto asked. Raúl smiled.

"They won't. They can't. The code is uncrackable. They won't even get the first step. And man, there are 8 steps. The entire message gets so garbled after three. And it's all random."

"Then how do you decode it?" Lola asked.

"Don't even bother to ask," Raúl said. "It's way too complicated."

"If no one else is going to say anything constructive, I think we're done here," Beto announced. "I'm checking airlines and Raúl's writing a reply letter and an e-mail about what to do with Eva. Missing anything?"

"Be careful," Luz said. "If the Yeerks find out we're sniffing around their Visser, they'll infest you and kill us."

"I know."

"Much as I like Italy, I'd hate to keep them company."

"And," Pepe added. "As always, we're on the lookout for Controllers."

"As always," Beto agreed.


	2. O'ahu, Hawaii

O'ahu, America

It was dark.

The masked 18-year-old tightened the ropes around her wrists, noticing red marks from her twisting. "Quit moving," he commanded. His voice was deep.

"Who are you?" the thin 46-year-old woman asked, fear in her voice.

"I am your – the Yeerk's – worst nightmare. But your host has nothing to fear from me."

"Host? What are you talking about?"

"I know who you are," he stated. "You are a Yeerk, and part of the mission to enslave the human race. Me? I represent the humans. Now I'll be coming back in 3 days, and you'll be dead by then. Then I'll untie this human and let her go free. You can deny being a Yeerk if you want, but we'll see in 3 days."

The Yeerk inside of the woman gave up the act. "How did you find out about us?" she asked. Now the fake fear was gone, and it was clear that the Yeerk was simply angry.

"Someone told me, and when I couldn't believe it, he showed me. Then he went back to his own country, leaving me to start my own resistance movement right here in Hawaii."

"How did he know?"

He considered not telling her any more. After all, this was his time to question her. But he knew that she would be dead soon, and it might be fun to gloat. "Your Andalite Bandit friends set him and about 5 other humans free during a Yeerk pool invasion."

"Your race will not win if all they have is 6 human children," the woman spat. "The Andalite filth are being dealth with."

But he was done with the topic. "How did you find Italy?" There was silence, so he punched her face as hard as he could. She let out a yelp in pain, but refused to give him much more satisfaction than that. "How did you locate the Italian rebels?" When she didn't answer, he hit her again and roared "Tell me how!"

"One of their Controllers escaped," she said slowly. "And he reported to his nearest Visser."

"The Italian rebels aren't stupid. We all wear masks in case controllers escape. How-"

"I don't know the details!" she whined. "I'm stationed here on the islands; they're all in Turin. You would have better luck going there and getting the Visser to talk."

"What's his number?"

"I don't know."

The guy glared at the woman for a minute, and then said, "Look, I have to go to work. You wanna tell me this Visser's number? 4,5… 2,3?"

"Why would I tell you?"

"You might as well make me happy so you're in less pain before your death."

"I won't tell."

The guy looked at his watch, pressing a button to make it glow so that he could read it. It was 4:50. "Is it true that Visser One is going to Spain?"

The Yeerk sounded surprised. "Where did you hear that?" she asked.

"Yes or no?"

"It's true."

"Where in Spain?"

"Well, I – "

He picked up a wooden chair and threw it just past the woman, so it hit the back wall with a loud crash. Then he demanded in a loud, full voice "What airline?"

"I don't know."

"When does she leave?!?!"

The woman cowered. "T-T-two days."

The guy looked at the woman a bit longer, and then finally said, "You're done, Yeerk. You've told me everything I care to know that you'll give me. I'm leaving now, but I'll be back in a few hours. If you want, I'll give you a short death instead of starving you. If not, I'll come back in 3 days." He walked out of the room, shut the door, and took off his mask. He put it in his backpack and started walking to his workplace.

Things were uneventful until 9, when he was finished working. He left and went down to Waikiki beach, where he met Kane, his friend and also a member of his rebel group. Kane smiled at him and they shared a welcoming hug, then started walking away from the beach. They went back in the direction where the captive Controller awaited.

"Germany got five more," Kane told his leader, his tone dark.

"Any news on the American 'Andalite bandits'?" Matt asked.

"Nope. But there are six of them."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Something you don't know? Well, Australia got four."

"I was expecting more bad news."

Kane and Matt both stopped walking, set their backpacks down, and unzipped them. They put their black masks on in perfect unison. "Italy was the bad news," Kane replied. Matt looked at him, nodded, and they went inside the room.

"I brought a friend," Matt told the Controller. "Sorry I'm early."

Kane knelt so that he was face-to-face with the Controller. Though it was dark, he was able to look into her eyes with the small, faint light reflecting off of them. His staring into her eyes was first for intimidation, then for the simple reason that Kane enjoyed doing it. Torture - physical or mental - was his favorite.

"Would you like me to kill you?" he asked. "Or would you rather starve?"

"Neither," the Controller replied.

"Starvation, then?"

"I won't die."

"With an attitude like that, it'll be sooner than you think."

"You have a choice," Matt cut in, sounding much more like a voice of reason than he did during his last encounter. He was no longer the questioner. "Come out of your host or stay in. If you stay, you starve to death. If not, you die now, painlessly."

There was silence.

A moment later, a slug exited the woman's ear.

"Don't do anything," Matt quickly told the newly freed human. "I know you're excited since you're free, but don't do anything. Just wait."

"God bless you," she whispered. "God bless you."

"Thanks, ma'am."

_Splat._

Matt and the woman looked over to Kane, who now had a dead Yeerk all over his shoe. "I love my job," Kane muttered.

"Now, listen," Matt told the woman as he cut her ropes. "You can't tell anyone about the Yeerks, okay? I know you feel like you have to, you at least want to tell your loved ones. But you'd either be locked up in an asylum, killed, or they'd find you and reinfest you. I don't think you want any of those." He took out some ointment and put it on a cloth, dabbing it on her face where he'd punched her hours before. "Just trust me, we have allies all over the world who are fighting the Yeerks. Go back to life as it was before you were infested, and never, _ever _say a word about this or anything else you experienced."

"Who are you people?" she asked in wonder. "You... angels?"

"We're rebels. I can't tell you our names in case you're reinfested; that's a chance we can't take. Now go home. We're gonna clean this up." Backed away from her and she stood, her first time in years. She smiled and gave Matt a sudden hug.

"Thank you so much!" she sobbed. "I'm free!" She started to leave, but just as she did Matt reminded her.

"Don't run around saying that. You need to act normal. Don't draw attention." She laughed, nodded, and left.

"Women," Kane muttered, wiping up dead Yeerk insides off the floor. "Can't live with 'em."

Matt smirked. "Everyone's a little crazy when they're first freed."

"True, but I hold true to my theory that women are worse."

"Y'know what's weird? I never get sick of that splat noise when you squish them."

Now Kane laughed. "Yeah, that's a good sound."

A/N: I always forget the disclaimer, and this wouldn't be an MKM story if that were in the first chapter. Animorphs aren't mine. Also, there's always some discussion about how old they are. Ever since I've been reading them (I was waiting patiently for book 4's release, so that should give you a clue) I've imagined them in high school. Even though I was a lot younger, I still thought these heroes would have to be older than me (now they're younger than me. Wow, I'm old.) Well, yes, I've always imagined them in high school.

BUT I did notice in book 30 "Luckily, our school has no guards or metal detectors like they do in the high schools." (Beginning of chapter 5) Alas, they really are little kiddies. But as I've always seen them high schoolish, always written them high schoolish, and am much better at writing high schoolish characters, they are high schoolish in this fic. Sorry if that bothers you.

Last but not least, Visser One is Marco's mom (or, controlling Marco's mom if we wanna get technical.) This entire story is ruined if that were not so. So, it is so.


	3. Berlin, Germany

Berlin, Germany

Four German teens sat around in Manfred's room. The boys, Manny and Kleus, were both sitting on the floor Indian style, but for some reason Manny stood out as he always ended up doing. Manny's presence demanded attention and respect, in part because he was so large and muscular, but also because of the stern expressions he always wore, whether he meant to or not. Momo was on his bed with her legs, bent at the knees, off to her right, fiddling with some extra cloth on her shirt. The fiddling made her fingers look more delicate and dainty. Anja was the opposite, sitting on the edge of Manny's desk chair with an intense look in her eyes. "We want Russia," Anja said. "We need Russia."

"I think we all agree with that," Manny replied. "But would we rather plant a group in Russia, or make ourselves known to our American 'Andalite bandits?'"

"Why can't we have both?" Kleus asked.

"Because I'm not buying four tickets to Russia and four tickets to America," Manny answered. "The Americans are able to morph. They would be valuable."

"Maybe," Momo said. "But we already have five American groups, and no Russians."

"But the invasion is stronger in America," Anja thought aloud, going against her own original position. "We need more Americans."

"That, and I'd rather go to America than to Russia," Manny added with a smile.

Kleus shrugged. "It's your call, Manny. Whatever you decide, we'll follow."

Momo nodded. "That's why you're the leader," she agreed.

"Aw, don't make me feel guilty," Manny said. But he only said it jokingly and his "guilt" lasted no longer than his sentence. "I guess we're going to America, then. So now, Spain wants to know what to do with Visser One?"

Momo nodded and picked up a paper that was laying near her. She scanned it and said, "In the note, Raúl said the choice is to definitely kill one human, or possibly kill many. What's the verdict?"

"The loss of many outweighs the loss of few, no matter the odds," Manny stated. "I'm reading the Odyssey and he has a choice very similar to this. Take one route and lose six men, or take another and possibly lose them all. He took the safe road and lost six."

"Was it the right choice?" Anja asked.

"Supposedly. I think it was."

"So we do this because Homer thought it was right?" Momo asked. "That's hardly a reason."

"Homer was a very wise man," Manny countered. "So yes, I think they should kill her. It would be too horrible to just let her go. Besides," he grinned slightly, "this resistance was born from killing hosts with controllers. Who are we to buck Sam's tradition?"

"I agree," Kleus said. "More about the Homer argument than the tradition one."

"Well, if it's good enough for a wise old Grecian it's enough for me," Anja decided. "Now, who's going to America with Manny, and when?"

"One of you girls can go," Kleus offered. Momo smiled.

"Really, Kleus?" she asked. "Aw, that's so sweet of you." She turned to Anja. "What about you? Do you wanna go?"

"Of course I wanna go," Anja answered. "I've always wanted to go to America."

"Then we can argue about it later," Momo said with a smile. "Any more business?"

"Yes," Manny said. "Did Spain get any more Yeerks?"

Momo scanned the letter, moving her head back and forth slightly as she did. "Um... I don't think so. They only said that they're having a hard time identifying Controllers."

"That's too bad. Tell them good luck."

"Yes, sir."

Manny smiled. "Don't give me lip, either."

"Sorry, sir." A smile slowly appeared on Momo's face. She loved to mock his authority. Momo and Manny had gotten into a more serious relationship a few months back, but it lasted for little more than two weeks. It wasn't classified as "dating" in their minds, but it was about as close to it as one could get. They were just really good friends.

"Keep that up, soldier, and you're fired."

"Sir, you can't fire me, sir," Momo replied. "I'm the only person you have trained in decoding, sir."

Manny laughed. "Okay, okay, consider your name cleared. Is there anything else we need to address?"

"Yes," Anja said. "How about who you're taking to the dance on Friday?"

Manny made an odd noise that was meant to sound incredulous but was interrupted with a chuckle. "Dance? I'm saving the world; I don't have time to dance."

"Really, Manny."

The handsome young German boy laughed again. "To be honest, I'm eying Angalika, unless I notice a better offer... that I stand a chance at getting."

"Well, Momo doesn't have a date yet."

Manny didn't bat an eye at her bait. "Neither does Kleus; they should go together."

"What? You jerk!"

"I don't care," Momo cut in. Suddenly there was a lot of tension in the room, but since Kleus was the only one who wasn't anxious, he felt the need to break it.

"Well, Momo, you heard the man," he stated. "What do you say?" He flashed her a charming smile.

"Sorry, but I say there's not enough money in the world."

Manny smiled as well, though things in the room weren't as comfortable as they once were. "Well, I'll get two plane tickets for Friday after school. Three days. But I'll need to know before then who's going, so Momo and Anja need to fight it out soon."

"You'll know tomorrow," Anja said.

"Good. We'll go to Spain on Friday and leave for America on Monday. We'll be home by the Sunday after."

"Wait a minute," Momo said. "Will they be there to catch the Visser?"

"Beto, Pepe, Luz, and Lola will take care of her," Manny assured her.

"It's only a week?" Kleus asked.

"If you think my parents'll let me miss more than a week of school, you're crazy," Manny replied. "Meeting adjourned."

A/N: Sorry to Fathom, but I don't think Australia's gonna get very much more involved in this story than they have been so far (which is, a sentence. :p ) My plan was to just focus on Germany, Spain, and our dearly beloved Animorphs. But in case the vast number of names is confusing, don't worry. This is Keus and Anja's only appearance, and I think I'll weed out some Spaniards as well. The only characters you need to know about are the Animorphs (which should be easy), Manny, Momo, and... some Spaniards, who I haven't decided who's important yet.

_AND _the name "Sam."

Also, I have written a few more chapters. I like to stay a couple chapters ahead of what I post, just so if I get a little bit of a block I can still post things that I already had written. Know what I mean? So anyways, it's a little more developed than you see right now. And next chapter will get into the Animorphs, I promise.


	4. Meeting

A/N: For some reason, I've gotten used to switching from first to third person, and even from one person's POV to another's. So that's how this story is written, but I'll be clear at the beginning what's going on. Sorry if that bothers anyone, but it's just how I wrote this. And a lot of the story is written already, so I don't want to change it.  
Also, these two chapters are really short, so I stuck them together. First part told from Marco's POV, second part is third person. Which may be obvious to some, but I want to keep this story the least confusing. 

America

MARCO

Erek the informer. Always there to tell me something I don't wanna hear just when my life starts to get a little bit better. Nice guy. Bad news. Always.

Jake told me today wasn't supposed to be that bad. Jake told me Erek's words would give us a sort of "head start." And anyways, this mission was _supposed_ to be optional. What did that mean? When was saving the world "optional?"

Ah, by the way, my name's Marco. I spend my spare time playing video games and fighting grey slugs, but I'll bet you already know all about that. You probably also know all about Erek the Chee, and how he's really a metallic dog. My guess is that you also know he's kind of the local Animorphs spy, the guy we get information from. Which would explain why we were in Cassie's barn (surprise, surprise) ready to hear him talk.

"What's up?" Rachel asked, standing today. We usually all sat. I think she was anxious to get to a sale or something Rachel-esque.

"It's Visser One." My head perked up at hearing this from Erek. Visser One controlled my mother, who was assumed dead by what little family I had. I was the only one who knew the truth, besides the Yeerks and my fellow Animorphs.

"She's hopping a first class flight to Madrid. Direct flight, no layovers. We assume it's urgent."

"Why is she going?" Jake asked.

"Um, no news yet. But-" Erek handed Jake a copy of an article that was printed on a normal piece of paper, but the article itself was in Spanish. "Five Italians were killed by assumed Dracon beams, and Spain knows it. We think she might have a plan to get some Yeerks into the media's heads."

Jake scanned the article with large, surprised eyes. I knew he didn't speak Spanish, but then, neither did I. Cassie was the closest thing we had to a Spanish-speaker, and she'd only taken Spanish one last year.

Why would the Yeerks kill five Italian teens? Tobias wondered.

"That's a good question," Erek said. "And we don't know that for sure, either. A lot is hypothesis right now, but it's possible they were controllers and escaped the Yeerk pool, or were in some other way a threat. Or maybe the local Visser had an angry fit; who knows? Bottom line is, the Italian media knows."

"But how could _anyone _know this?" Rachel demanded. "Can't the Italian cops cover it?"

"Remember that the Yeerk invasion is strongest here," Erek replied. "You guys are used to thinking all cops and media are controllers, but it's not like that abroad. In other countries, controllers are _very_ hit-and-miss; there's no fast rule to who is and who isn't. And there aren't many controllers over there at all, anyways. It is trying to be kept under wraps; Spain's the only other country that printed the story, and it's sort of exclusive. But it's there."

So Visser One's on damage control, Tobias stated. Erek nodded.

"That's what we assume."

I knew what everyone, especially probably Rachel, was thinking. We should finish her off this time, they thought. But no one wanted to say anything like that in front of me, otherwise they thought I'd break down crying. But I wouldn't have.

I love my mom. Always have, always will. But if her dying would save the human race from slavery, I'd have to agree that we were better off without her. Then again, that's what I said last time. You know what happened last time. I choked. And I've never forgiven myself for it.

"Jake, get me there and I'll do my job," I said. Everyone looked at me in surprise.

Cassie looked sympathetic. "Marco..."

"I'll do what has to be done," I insisted. Jake nodded.

"Well, I've always been able to count on you," Jake stated. I knew he didn't mean it, but it was the kind of nice thing a nice guy would say to his nice friend to make everyone feel nice. He turned to Erek. "You guys mind covering for us while we go?"

Erek shook his head. "Not at all. What's your plan?"

Jake glanced quickly at me, then returned his eyes to Erek. "We'll see what happens. Starve the Visser while we're there will be best, then come home with an extra person."

_Sure, Jake, get my hopes up,_ I thought. Like we were really going to just hang out in Spain for three days while the Yeerk dies. I had a feeling he meant to kill her, but I didn't object. Now wasn't the time to raise the issue.

"Where would we keep her?" Cassie asked. A logical question, but also not the time to challenge Jake when he was trying to be nice. Jake winced.

"Hmm... not sure. We'll figure it out when we get there." Jake's not a "figure it out when we get there" kind of guy.

"So, the fly thing again?" Rachel asked. Jake nodded.

"Yeah, but it's a long flight. We need to find somewhere with spare seats so we can demorph and sit there. When we land we'll morph again so we can get past without passports or anything, and we're in. We should leave on Saturday."

"Can't we leave Friday morning?" I asked hopefully. Jake smiled.

"No. Go to school, Marco."

Spain

"¡Hola!"

"Hallo!"

Laughter, Spanish, and German greetings mixed together when Manny and Momo got off the plane at 11:34 pm, local time. Everyone was excited to see each other for the very first time. They all exchanged hugs and gentle kisses on the cheek.

"Anja wanted to come so badly," Momo told them as they headed outside where they'd drive to Raúl's house. "We had to tie her up to stop her."

"We wanted to meet all of you," Lola replied. "We wish she and Kleus could have made it."

"Unfortunately, my parents aren't made of money," Manny lamented.

"Just about," Momo muttered. "They bought two tickets, didn't they?"

"Spain is not far," he added. "Besides, it's almost like they get to meet Anja and Kleus. They've heard their voices over the phone, and you brought so many pictures."

Pepe laughed. "Pictures? Wow, you must have thought a lot about this trip. I'd never think to bring pictures."

"I thought you'd like to get a visual of them," Momo said defensively. "So what?"

Luz eyed her giant suitcase. Momo had a large sack-like purse, duffle bag, and a suitcase bigger than anything Luz had ever seen. "What else did you bring?" she asked.

"A lot of music," Momo replied. "My duffle bag is filled with CDs."

"She loves her garage bands," Manny added. "I can vouch for how many CDs she brought. You'd think she'd just buy an MP3 player and save herself a lot of space."

They walked outside where it was slightly cool, but not too bad. The weather was not very different from Germany to Spain, and they all expected it to be colder at night. Still, as the weather had been warming up lately, Momo and Manny had both worn T-shirts and were slightly cold while walking to Raúl's car.

"MP3 players are for sell outs," Momo retorted. "I'm old school."

"Clearly," Manny said with a smile.

A/N: Mrowrkat - Yeah, the international resistance suspects the Animorphs are humans. They have several hints, but they don't know for sure. How did they figure it out? Oh, they have resources... :p You'll see.


	5. Spain Airport

MARCO

"Jake, I think I forgot something at home."

"What?"

"Clothes."

We'd just landed in Spain, found our way to the bathrooms, and demorphed. I decided we should have bought tickets, because then we would have been able to bring something along. Not just clothes, oh no. A simple dollar would have done, but we couldn't even bring money to _buy_ clothes. I was pretty sure if we didn't die of humiliation, we'd die of starvation.

But Jake had a plan. Jake always has a plan.

"Don't sweat it. International check card."

I walked out of my stall door and found a near-empty bathroom. Jake, Tobias, and Ax were still in their stalls, and very few other people were in there. "How did you _bring_ said miracle plastic?"

"I memorized the number. You can still use it."

I was skeptical, especially if the card was all the way back in America. I'd never heard anyone recite their card number for payment. "You sure that'll work?"

"Yep, I got it covered."

"I don't suppose we're getting a hotel, too?"

"Don't push it." Jake came out of his stall and saw a Spanish guy who turned and gave him a weird look. It was probably the spandex that did it. To this day I don't know why he didn't look at me strangely as well, but maybe I don't want to know why Jake caught his eye instead of me.

Jake forced a smile. "It's the coolest thing in America," he told the guy, who then grunted and walked towards the urinals. Jake shook his head. "It'd help if we spoke Spanish."

"Don't worry," I answered. "We won't be here long."

"The workers here in the airport know English," Tobias said, now coming out of his own stall. "They have to."

Right as he said "to" there was a "_thump_" we heard on yet another stall's door. We knew what it was.

"Um, Ax?" Jake called.

"Yes, Pr- Jake?" He couldn't call Jake "prince" unless it was unbroadcasted thought-speak. We made sure he knew that before we got on the plane.

"What exactly are you doing?"

"I am doing nothing." Likely story.

Tobias walked over to the closed stall and knocked on the door. "Open the door, Ax," he said. The door swung open to reveal Ax, in human morph, covered in toilet paper. We stared for a minute, amused. I held back a pretty large laugh, and couldn't even think of something smart to say. This situation needed no punch line; Ax _was_ the punch line.

"Don't do that," I finally said, once I found my words.

"Don't do what?"

I shook my head, smirking. "I don't know; whatever you were doing, don't. It's bad when you humiliate yourself."

"Is this what humans do when they are shamed?"

"Not exactly. Humans do that, _then_ they're shamed."

"Ah."

"Just don't do it," Jake insisted. He walked over to Ax and helped him pull it off. "Trust us." He sighed. "We need Rachel and Cassie."

I piped up. "I think clothes are a priority."

"You know the plan?" Jake asked. I sighed.

"Yeah." The plan was boring.

"That's what we're doing."

"Do we know when she'll show?" Tobias asked. Another guy walked into the bathroom and headed for the urinals. We didn't let his presence bother us; it wasn't uncommon to talk about arrival times when in an airport.

"Sooner or later," Jake said. "She gets here today, we know that for sure. Long as we know her gate, we'll be fine." He made eye contact with me, Tobias, then Ax, and clapped his hands together, then rubbed them. "Okay, are we ready? It's go time."

We left the bathroom together and saw the girls already waiting for us. Rachel shook her head and made a comment about how men take forever in the bathroom. I couldn't think of anything witty enough worth replying but tame enough not to get me punched in the kidney. Rachel was mad. She'd been mad on the flight and she was mad now. I, personally, was sick of her complaining.

"We should nail her at the pool," she insisted, keeping her voice down.

"Shh," Jake said anyway. "We don't know who..."

"If the media isn't, nobody is," she replied firmly. "Come on Jake. Now let's hurry up and buy something already."

"Okay, okay." The six of us walked into an airport store and got some cheap clothes, then went back near the bathrooms. There we morphed unique mixes of each other that we'd gotten so Visser One's host wouldn't recognize us, and also put on our clothes. I was a mix of Jake and Rachel... which wasn't much of a mix as they already look alike. But it did change each of them enough that I don't think anyone would have mistook me for Jake. The problem was that in the store I made the horrible mistake of buying clothes for me, not a mixture of two giants. So the pants were a little tight, and shorter than I like them. When you're as short as me, you start to enjoy wearing pants a foot too long. You like the way they bunch around your shoes.

Fortunately I didn't look ridiculous. I just missed my long pants.

After that we did the stakeout. Sat at the gate until her flight came in. I was ready.

A/N: Okay, okay, I know I've kinda built this up... but they WILL meet in the next chapter! I promise. I do have a question, though. I was pretty active on this site a few years ago, then I left for over a year and now that I'm back it seems like things have changed. One thing that's changed is that the thoughtspeak symbols don't work anymore! Is there a trick to getting them to show? If not, what do you guys use?


	6. The Chase

RAÚL

We were there in the airport at Gate A16. Eva's gate. All 8 of us. The second her flight came in, we all sat a little farther forward in our seats. We couldn't screw this up.

Manny had a plan that I didn't like, but he was more than the head of a group. He was the head of the German group. Germany was the first International Yeerk Resistance group to be planted. It was always clear to all other groups that Germany was the leader of all other groups. Even Momo, who was just another order-taker like the rest of us, probably outranked me, just because she was in the German group and I wasn't. But Manny? He was the leader of all the other leaders. Only one person had ever outranked him, and Sam was dead now.

Manny said we should have her in public so that her razor-bladed goons couldn't be around to draw attention and inevitable questions. That was a great point, but it had its own risks. Because we were in an airport, we had to worry about security. On one hand, I'd rather take on humans than the knife aliens. On the other, I wouldn't hold back on the knife aliens. It was a fight to the death with them. Airport guards were another story; we had to avoid them, protect them from the Visser, not hurt them, _and_ get around them. It might be tricky.

But Manny was supposed to be smart.

We didn't even know which person was her, but the six Americans in the corner did. I'm glad they were there, or else Eva probably would have gotten away without us ever noticing. A huge, glaring problem that Manny had overlooked. This wasn't the first time I doubted his "superior" leading abilities.

I was grateful for the Americans.

When they saw her, they stood up. We didn't pay much attention to them at first, because we figured they were going to greet a friend or relative like any normal airport-goer would. When they started running, and she ran from them, we knew exactly what we had on our hands: a visser and the Americans we'd been trying so hard to contact.

We'd been aware of the Americans from the very beginning. Sam knew all about them, and passed his knowledge on to Manny before his death. When Manny planted the other groups, he always told them about the elusive American group that kept tabs on everything they did. They were the only Yeerk resistance group that wasn't aware of the rest of us. We'd wanted to contact them for some time to increase our numbers, and also help them, but they kept extremely low profiles. I never imagined finding them would be this easy.

We darted after the Americans and Manny stated as we took off, "The Andalites! Six Americans who can morph chasing down a visser. It's them!"

It didn't take long for the Americans to notice us. Soon after we started sprinting after them, one of them said, "Um, Jake? She expected us." A different one turned his head around and looked at us, then panic was in his eyes.

"He thinks we're on her side," Luz observed.

We were outside in no time. One of the Americans, the taller girl, quickly turned and started to run at _us_, while the rest continued on the visser. But there were eight of us and only one of her. I knew why they didn't send more back after us – to keep a trail on Eva – but still, it was sort of insulting that they'd even try to take us down with one person.

She ran smack into Manny and knocked him over. He was a good choice; he was the tallest, broadest of all of us, and clearly the biggest threat. He yelled after us, "Go! Go! Go!" Him and the girl disappeared from view.

"We're on your side!" Ana called. "Hey, Americans! We're on your side!"

They didn't acknowledge her at all.

"We have a choice," Momo said, breathing heavily. "Do we want six Americans or one visser?"

"Americans," Beto answered quickly, like he'd already been thinking about it for some time. "Once we have them, we're unstoppable. Kill Visser One, and they'll just go down the line and promote everyone."

"Anyone disagree?" Momo asked, being diplomatic. "Alright. One of us for every one of them. Beto and Luz take the light blonde guy, and Raúl and I can take the other larger one. Everyone clear?"

"Let's go," Luz agreed. "Catching up to them might be a problem, though."

Momo nodded. "Anyone who knows the area care to take charge?"

Lola didn't speak; she just ran slightly off course and let the rest of us follow. We ran after her.

"We'll never find Manny again," I pointed out. He didn't know the area at all, and I assumed the American girl who tackled him didn't, either. "He'll definitely never find _us_."

"We will," Ana replied, nodding to me reassuringly. I hoped she knew her way back.

We were outside now, I assumed we were running towards the visser's getaway car. We ended at a stoplight, which I doubted was right. If we ended up anywhere, it should have been a parking lot. But Lola was sure we were in the right spot, and then a few blocks down I saw Visser One emerge and begin to run towards us. Pepe smiled at Lola. "Muy impresionante," he stated, pleased.

Lola smiled a little bit, then frowned when the black 2001 Taurus stopped at the sidewalk and Visser One hopped in. We all prayed for a red light, but we had no such luck. Within seconds, the visser sped past us and left the Americans to glare at us, six Spaniards and one German girl.

Beto held up his hands to show that we meant no harm. The rest of us followed his lead.

"Who are you?" the shortest American asked. He looked like he had some Spanish blood in him as well, but his skin was darker than ours. Maybe he also had some African blood.

"We are part of the International Yeerk Resistance," Momo answered. The boy raised his eyebrows.

"You know about the Yeerks? Why were you chasing us?"

Pepe took a breath to speak, but he should have known better. It wasn't his place in front of a German. "We were chasing Visser One, and for the same reason you were," Momo replied. "We lost someone back there at the airport, and so did you. Let's go get them and find a place to talk."

The boy didn't move an inch. "How do you know about _us_?" he asked, unconvinced that he could trust us.

"You're the supposed 'Andalite bandits,' right?" Momo asked. "Five Americans, one _real_ Andalite." Their expressions showed their surprise. They acted like we'd correctly stated all their middle names.

"How... do you know _any _of this?" their other girl asked. They had only two; one that was back with Manny, and now this one.

"We have five units in America," Momo announced proudly. "Well, the American mainland. If you count Hawaii, we have seven."

"Come on," Pepe finally said. I could tell he'd been dying to speak. "We can find a place to talk after we pick up our missing units. You trust us?"

They looked at each other again and hesitated, then looked back to us. There was a long bit of silence while they thought. Then, finally, the short boy said, "No, not totally. We don't really trust anyone. A policy of ours."

"Understandable," Momo said, nodding. She held out her hand. "I'm Momo. I'm the decoding specialist for the head resistance group, which is based in Berlin. Are you the guy in charge?"

The boy shook her hand. "Name's Jake. Yeah, I'm the leader."

"Well, Jake, we've been dying to meet you."

A/N: Thanks, Gryphie, for filling me in on the thoughtspeak symbols!


	7. Cassie and Manny

CASSIE

The German boy held out his hand to help me up. I didn't trust any of these new kids, but I took his hand as a reflex. He pulled me up slowly, but without faltering one bit. He was as strong as he was gentle.

"I'm Manfred," he told me once I was on my feet again. "Or Manny. What's your name?"

I looked at him skeptically. After guarding my name for so long, I wasn't about to hand it out to any random person, especially not one who'd been chasing me a moment ago. "Sophie," I said. He smiled and held out his hand once again, this time to shake. I didn't reach for it again.

He smiled and relaxed his hand to his side. "I know you're skeptical. You would be; your team's such a ghost. We've had so much trouble contacting you."

I started to walk over to a curb so I could sit. Manny's smile was so warm and friendly, it was hard for me not to trust him. But I knew that controllers could be awfully convincing when they wanted to be, and I was determined to remain firm in not giving him any ground. At least not until I'd talked to Jake and figured out what he thought about all this.

"Yeah?" I asked as I sat down on the curb. I wanted to keep him talking. That would accomplish two things: get me information, and keep me from having to give _him_ information.

"You guys sure are careful," he stated. I nodded.

"We have to be."

"I understand; we take a lot of cautious measures ourselves." He sat down next to me and we hung out in silence for a few moments. Then he said, "I don't suppose you know your way to... anywhere around here?"

I turned my head and looked at him. He was an attractive boy. Tall, broad and muscular, athletic build. He reminded me of Jake, but he had brown hair instead of blonde and brown eyes instead of Jake's gorgeous blue. But he was every bit as good-looking, and even a little taller. I considered how old he might be. Eighteen or nineteen, I guessed.

((Can anyone hear me?)) I asked my fellow Animorphs. ((Are you still in range?))

Out loud I said, "I might." I didn't want him to know how defenseless I was.

"Well, I'm sure lost," he said. He stretched out his legs and lightly slapped around his baggy jeans, getting the dust off them. "Only my second trip to Spain. Last time I was in Santiago de Compostella, it's northeast. Lovely city, just lovely. Farther from home, though."

"Yeah," I muttered. He continued.

"I suppose they're about the same to you, huh? Or, they might as well be. Even if one's an extra hour on a plane, what's one hour when you fly that far already?"

"Yeah," I agreed. He shook his head, still smiling.

"You _do_ speak English, don't you?"

I turned and looked at him in surprise. "Of course I speak English. Are you an idiot?"

He laughed a good, heartfelt laugh. It was hard for me to admit, but Manny was growing on me. He seemed like an awful nice guy. "It's just that, it seems like 'yeah' is the only word you know."

"Your English is pretty good," I said. If I had to talk to him, I'd at least keep the conversation away from Yeerk-like things, or anything regarding personal information.

"Yeah, well, it has to be. It's the only way for us all to communicate. We're in so many different countries with so many different languages. English was the easiest, since most of us had already suffered through a year or two of it. Of course we had to study it more, but it's paid off. And we've learned a lot just from speaking it with each other."

"Where are you from?"

"Can't you tell?"

I paused and thought about his accent. Surprisingly, it wasn't very strong. He was definitely not born and raised in the heart of America, but it had faded enough that I wasn't quite sure.

"Europe, right?"

He nodded. "Yeeeees..." He looked at me with expectant eyes.

"Probably, Germany or Austria or Poland or somewhere in that area."

"Germany. Berlin, in fact."

"East or west Berlin?" I asked with a smirk. It was the first time I'd seen him without a smile on his own face; he just shook his head with a frown.

"It's true, what they say about Americans. You have no idea what goes on abroad. The separation of the city ended in-"

"I was kidding."

He paused and stared at me for a second, then started to laugh. I smiled along with him; his happiness was contagious.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "What a rude assumption."

"It's okay, it's hard to tell a joke when it's not funny."

He shook his head and continued grinning, looking into my eyes. It scared me how fearlessly he looked at me. It wasn't that he looked intimidating at me, but he just looked... so completely unafraid, the way someone looks at a kitten. I wished he had some sense of fear from me, or at least an unsettling feeling of the unknown. But then, it seemed he knew a lot about me. That worried me, too.

A lot of things about him worried me.

A/N: Good grief! Brachets don't work either! Thanks for letting me know, Fathom, or I never would have noticed. How 'bout double parenthasis?


	8. Primary Negotiation

MARCO

I was enjoying being a little taller than normal with these mixed morphs, being the seemingly redundant Jake/Rachel mix. But another advantage to us morphing mixes, besides my mom not recognizing us, was that we could privately discuss everything that was happening, as these new guys didn't seem to realize. Correction: they had no clue.

I liked Manny. He was Jake in one year with brown hair and an accent. Though, when I say I liked him, I don't mean that I trusted him. I guess I respected him because he seemed like a good leader, and I saw similarities from Jake in him. At the same time, something about these guys seemed off, and I was just as suspicious as everyone else.

I didn't really know where we were. It was a bit of a larger building, not tall, but broad. We went down to the cold, vacant basement to talk. After some introductions (and realizing Cassie had given them her name as Sophie), we began to negotiate.

"So, how did you find out about us?" Jake began.

"Well, there really wasn't much to it," Manny answered with a shrug. "We have people in America. They'd report things like 'Iniss 226 was killed' or 'Yeerk pool destroyed' and none of them had anything to do with it, so we knew someone else was aware of the Yeerks. Then we found out it was animals that were doing this, so they had to be morph-capable. Then..."

((Iniss 226 was Chapman's old Yeerk,)) Rachel stated suspiciously. ((I don't like that he used that name.))

((Down, girl,)) I replied. Jake kept his eyes on Manny and asked, "How'd you figure five humans and an Andalite?"

"That's complicated," Manny responded. By his voice inflection, he showed no intention of explaining farther.

((I don't like that answer at all,)) Tobias said.

((Neither do I,)) Jake admitted. We still weren't sure how much of these guys we could trust. "We don't have anywhere to be," he told Manny.

Manny shifted his weight from one foot to the other, hands in his pockets, looking at the ground. Finally he looked up, back at Jake, and said, "Well, you know Illim, right?"

"Aftran," one of the Spanish girls added. I couldn't keep their names straight.

Jake leaned forward on his chair, fully interested. Illim was a Yeerk who controlled Mr. Tidwell, a teacher at our school. Aftran was a Yeerk friend of Cassie's They were both part of the Yeerk peace movement.

This suddenly got very interesting. I could tell Cassie wanted to say something to Manny, but we'd agreed to let Jake do all the talking. He responded, "Keep talking."

"How much contact do you have with them?" Manny asked.

Jake wouldn't budge an inch, and I was so proud of him. It was amazing how he'd get all Jack Bauer on us when he was talking war. Even _I_ was almost afraid of him. "I told you to keep talking," he said evenly. He made it sound like a threat, trying to intimidate them.

"Hey, calm down. I just don't know how much you know, is all."

"Just start from the top," Jake advised.

((Atta boy,)) I cheered

((I'm not sure what I think of these guys,)) Jake told us. ((And they know too much about us, too much about the Yeerks.))

((But if they throw out Yeerk peace movement names, we have to hear them out,)) Cassie replied. I don't know what Manny had said to her after she knocked him out of the Visser One chase, but it was obvious she wasn't as skeptical of the entire "international resistance" as the rest of us. Manny was a friendly guy, but she should have known better than to trust that kind of thing.

((They could possibly have contact with the Chee,)) Ax pointed out.

((Yeah,)) Jake agreed. He studied Manny for a moment. "Hey, I told you something," he said. Manny shook his head.

"I thought if I just gave you names you knew-"

"Names can mean anything. They could be friends or foes; maybe you don't even know them. How am I supposed to be sure? I want explanations, _not_ names," he demanded. Jake knew how to let others know he was top dog. He knew how to pump people for information.

Manny was also very firm, but in a different way. Jake was clearly tense, and ready for anything. That's where he got his strength. Manny, on the other hand, was very relaxed and casual. In fact, I think it was his ease that made the rest of us nervous. If he was the enemy, he must have had more power than we did, otherwise he wouldn't have been so comfortable. Manny was stubborn and Jake was forceful, but they both had their own kinds of strength.

The German boy shook his head. "We aren't going to get anywhere like this," he stated sensibly. "Each of us wants the other one to talk first. So look, we need to figure out a fair way to do this."

"No, because it's not supposed to be fair," Jake insisted. He paused, then said, "Look, you're... Norwegian or something, right?"

((German,)) Rachel stated like it was obvious.

"German," Manny corrected.

Jake nodded. "Right. Well, we're in Spain. But you have people here. You guys know how to get around, you speak the language, and more than likely have a few connections." Manny nodded as Jake paused, letting his first point sink in. "Well, we're tired, hungry, English-speaking teens with only one pair of clothes. We don't know anyone here, we don't know our way around, have no money and don't even speak the language. So excuse me, but we're rather vulnerable. Not to mention we're at a place that _you_ brought us. For all we know we walked straight into a trap."

Manny continued to nod understandingly. "I'm sorry you feel like you can't trust us, but I have my own agenda. I need-"

"No," Jake said flatly. "_We_ get answers _now_."

"The more time we debate this, the farther away the visser gets," Manny pointed out.

Rachel snapped.

"Hey there, geuten tag!" she said to him, standing from her chair. "You're not making this any easier! _We_'re at the disadvantage here so _we_ get the first answers. Verstein sie?"

Her eruption didn't even phase Manny; he acted as though she'd spoke everything as politely as possible. "I hope you don't feel like we're _trying_ to put you in a bad position," he apologized. "That's not it at all. Look, everyone's a little tired, right? Why don't we all just meet somewhere tomorrow or something?"

"Nonono," Rachel insisted, voice still raised. I looked at Jake to see how he felt about her lashing out, but he seemed to have no reaction. He probably felt she was doing a good job. "Two seconds ago you wanted to hurry up before the visser gets away, and now we're just trashing a day?"

((Rachel, shut up,)) Jake finally said. I was surprised he said that when he looked so neutral, but then I realized he might be trying to keep up a face for the other guys. He wasn't trying to be mean, he was just irritated. It bugged Jake when he couldn't figure out the answer to something.

"Can we just have a minute?" Jake asked them. Manny nodded and we all huddled up as far away from them as we could in the small, cement room. "Okay, so what do we think?" he asked us quietly. ((I want most decision-making done in thought-speak, but we also have to say some things out loud so they don't get suspicious.))

"No matter what they say, we can't give them information until they've proven we can trust them," Tobias began. Jake nodded.

"Agreed."

((What's stopping us from giving them fake information to get them to talk?)) I asked. ((Would they know the difference?)) Jake looked at me.

((Good idea,)) he replied. "What do you think?" he asked, keeping up appearances.

"I think that whatever we do, we can do it tomorrow," I said.

Jake nodded. "Cassie? Rachel? Ax?"

"Betcha if we had a tailblade to their throats they'd talk." Guess who.

"Once we tell them something, we can't take it back," Cassie said. "We can't tell them anything until we're sure."

"How are we ever gonna be sure?" I asked. That seemed to stump them. Everyone was quiet for a few moments, and then Jake finally answered.

"When they give us Visser One, _that's_ when we're sure."

"You think they'll just hand her to us?" Tobias asked.

"Depends. Depends on how much they want this alliance." Jake turned back to the other group. "Okay, listen up. We aren't telling you guys anything until we have the visser."

"The visser?" Manny demanded. "I was hoping we could work together on that."

"_You_ guys can work together on that and let us know how it goes," Jake returned. "We can't work well together unless we trust each other. Visser first, trust later."

"So if we-"

"One other catch," he added quickly. "We want her host alive and free. So put the slimy grey Yeerk itself in my hands, and we'll tell you what you want to know."

"Why do you care about the host?" Raúl asked. Jake didn't bite.

"Just do it."

"No," a Spanish girl said firmly. Everyone looked at her. Manny seemed a little peeved that she'd say that and mess up his deal, but he also seemed to want to hear what she had to say. He probably had the power to override her if he didn't like her explanation. "We may owe you a little mercy, but that doesn't mean we'll just hand everything to you on a silver platter. You want the visser out of her host? Fine, but then you'll tell us why."

Jake didn't even glance at me, which actually surprised me. I figured he'd look for my nod of approval or something, but he didn't even flinch. I couldn't believe him; he was a brick wall.

"That host is a human being, and we don't kill human beings," he answered. "She must mean something to someone. Imagine if you knew the host."

Manny raised his eyebrows and showed a hint of a smile. He was impressed. "We thought of that, too," he told us. "But when the stakes get high, I don't like to gamble. If we kill her over three days, that's three days she has to escape, three days her goons have to bust her out, three days for... anything to happen. We shoot her in an instant, she doesn't have a chance. We'd rather be safe than sorry on this one."

"We don't kill human beings," he repeated evenly.

((Don't worry about it,)) I said privately to Jake. Only Jake.

((Marco...))

((Trust Manny. He seems like a good guy.))

((This has nothing to do with him.))

((Jake, what he's saying makes sense and you know it. You're just afraid to let other people down... to let _me_ down. But you have my permission.))

((Not when we're this close to saving her. I know how you feel. If Tom...))

He let it hang for a bit. He knew that I knew what he meant. But finally, as if realizing it for myself, I said, ((Don't let me and her be the reason the entire human race becomes enslaved.))

That got him. For the first time since we'd met up with Manny, Jake showed weakness. In fact, he looked like he was going to be sick. Maybe I did, too, because I sure didn't feel so good. I'd just given my best friend permission to kill my mother, and part of me couldn't believe it. Then again, it wasn't the first time I'd said something like that. And part of me knew it had to be said. Another part wondered if I was serious.

Finally, Jake addressed Manny. "If we let you kill her, how will we know we can trust you?"

Manny shrugged. "Because we will have killed her. What Yeerk would kill the head Yeerk? Even if we were controllers, we'd be outcast from all others. That should be assurance enough."

((Prince Jake, we have fifteen of your minutes left in morph.))

"Look, we have a schedule. Things to look up, people to check in with. So how about you and me meet up tomorrow and negotiate? Just you and me, leave our people out of this."

Manny shrugged again. "That's fine with me. But I don't know the area very well."

"McDonald's across the street," Raúl suggested. "You guys can find your way

back here, can't you?"

"That's perfect," Jake said. "We'll manage."


	9. Secondary Negotiation

JAKE

I wanted to go home more than anything, but inside I knew this was something I had to follow through with. In one hand, I held Marco. The funny, witty, intelligent guy who'd been my closest friend since either of us could remember. In my other hand, I held the created world – all of humanity – broad by default, but also very specific, because in that world lived Marco himself, and my family, his dad, all our friends... Cassie. One of my hands had to close.

"The bed's lumpy," Cassie mumbled, trying to fill silence. I didn't really expect that from her; she was the kind of person who could generally enjoy silence. But I guess it just became too much.

"And no MTV," Marco added, looking at the list of cable channels.

I sighed. "I don't know about this," I said quietly. It was so quiet I don't think Rachel even heard me, on the other side of the room.

"Jake, it's okay, man. I'll live with ESPN."

"That's not-"

"I think we all need a nap," Rachel cut in. "And you have to go visit with Manny soon." She pulled the comforter off one of the two beds, the one Cassie wasn't sitting on. Then Rachel bunched it up on the ground and layed in the bed. Cassie joined her on that one.

"Yeah, well, I guess I'll leave then," I said. I checked my watch and found I had to be there in fifteen minutes.

"Pick up some food?" Tobias requested. When we got to the hotel he demorphed, but then morphed back to human again. I guess it was just more comfortable for him to be in human form while we were in the room. "Anything."

"Sure, no problem."

When I got there, Manny was already eating some fries. I sat down across from him and he looked at me for a minute, seemingly confused, and then he smiled. "Do you need something?" he asked politely.

I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I'm kind of grumpy... I want to get done with this, get back, and go to sleep."

Manny's smile disappeared and he took on a more business kind of look. He set down his fry and looked me in the eye. "Done with what?"

"Negotiating. For the visser."

He looked surprised for a moment, then a tad confused. "Well, how much do you know?"

"About what?"

"The Yeerks."

"Probably more than you," I said. "Look, we just want her alive."

He sighed, as if he were disgusted by the situation. "Conditions, conditions. I have another deal that's in the air right now. In fact, he's supposed to get here soon. You'll have to be willing to give us a big payoff for the visser."

What was he talking about? A day ago they'd agreed to kill her basically for free, now all of a sudden he wanted some kid of fat check? "What do you want?" I asked him.

"We call for... the Andalite."

I couldn't believe what he was saying! He wanted a member of my team? How dare he even ask. "You can't have him," I said quickly, my anger showing in my voice. "I'd never turn in one of my team."

"Then we kill your visser," Manny replied calmly. "I don't mind either way."

"_My_ visser?" I asked.

"Yes, your visser. Unless, of course, you report to another. But Visser One's really everyone's visser, isn't she?"

I blinked for a moment, trying to figure out what he was talking about. "I want Visser One dead," I stated, hoping that would clear up some confusion between us. "I just want the host."

"Visser One dead?" Now it was his turn to be surprised. "You must be part of the Yeerk peace movement? Or just one of Visser Three's goons, maybe. We understand they have some kind of tension between them."

"We're not controllers," I said slowly, still trying to understand everything.

Manny raised an eyebrow. "Impossible. No one but controllers and my team know about the Yeerks. You're not one of my team."

"No..." I agreed, still confused.

"If you aren't a controller, and you aren't a part of the international resistance, who are you?"

I looked down at my hands. They were mine. Of course! When I met Manny for the first time, I'd been in morph. I was a mix of Marco and Cassie. Now I was just Jake, back to myself again. There was no way he could recognize me.

"Oh, wow," I said in surprise. He looked at me expectantly. "I'm sorry. It's me, Jake. We met at the airport... you forgot we're morph-capable."

"_You_?" he demanded. "I can't tell at all."

"No, you wouldn't be able to," I assured him. "The process completely changes our DNA with nothing left over: eye color, voice tone, nothing."

"It's like you're a completely different person," he said, absolute wonder in his voice. "That's incredible. I can't believe it."

"We normally use animals," I told him. He nodded.

"I know. We have intelligence in your area. I've just... never seen it before." He continued to look at me with huge eyes. I tried to ignore it.

"How'd a group like yours get started?"

He shook his head. "Please, no questions yet." He took another fry in his hand and passed it from finger to finger, and somehow he gathered an air of authority. And for some reason, I was intimidated, if even just a little.

A french fry shouldn't have the power to tell me he's more intelligent, stronger, somehow better than me, but it did. It was the coolness of his voice, the ease at which the fry smoothly sailed across his hand, calm and collected. I couldn't tell if he was doing this on purpose to intimidate or not, but it was working either way.

"First things first," Manny told me, as he pulled a small, ripped piece of paper from his pocket, "this is a number where you can get a hold of Raúl. He's the decoding specialist of the Spanish group." I took it from him and looked at the number. It had 11 digits instead of 10. "That's his cell phone number," Manny added. "He isn't allowed to make any important decisions, but he knows how to get in touch with me if you have to. We figured local calls would be easier."

"There's too many numbers," I stated. Manny looked surprised and snatched the paper back.

"No, this is right," he insisted, handing it back. "Now, we have to decide how the question-asking is going to go. Both of us have things we want to find out, and we can't just throw questions out and get frustrated when we each think we have a right to the first answers. Now, what do you propose?"

I paused to think about what he was saying. I knew he was right, that we needed some kind of order as far as how we were going to proceed, but I hadn't even thought about it. "I... don't know," I admitted. "But that's definitely a problem."

"Look, I understand that you guys are worse off, so I'm willing to give you some sort of advantage... but I'm still a little skeptical. So how about you ask the first question, then my turn, and we'll end with me eventually. Alright?"

I nodded. "Fine. How'd you get started?"

"An American, actually. He was a controller, but while his Yeerk was feeding he managed to escape. He told a close friend, but they kept it a secret that they knew. Went into hiding because the Yeerks knew where they lived. They started killing off Sharing members one by one, but soon it was too hard. Everyone was after them, not just controllers. And getting away with murder..." Manny shook his head regretfully. "Possible, but difficult, and requiring very specific circumstances that they just didn't have. They were serial killers. After a lot of trouble they flew to Germany and chose me to head up the entire resistance. I'm the only person who's met them. To everyone else, they're just legends." He paused, and looked like he was concentrating very hard. Finally he went on, "I gave them whatever they needed. To everyone else they're sociopaths, but to us, they're heroes." He paused again, his face slightly twisted with the pain of remembrance. "They killed themselves. They had to. They'd get caught eventually, infested, and then the Yeerks would know about me. Once they infested me, they'd know about the other groups I'd planted. It was the only way." He paused once again, then said, "Mine was the first crew."

He stopped talking altogether and let the information sink in. I felt sick. It was easy for us to kill aliens, parasites... but what these guys had done, they killed _us,_ our own people to get to the Yeerks. But the thing that scared me the most was that their cause was exactly the same as mine, and I wondered if that was what the Animorphs would evolve into. Serial killers and sociopaths. Eventual suicides.

"That's a very dark story," I finally said, mumbling a little. Manny nodded.

"Details are worse."

"Save them."

He nodded again. "Of course. It's just as well." He thought for a minute, then said, "Why do you want her alive so badly?"

I sighed. I'd suspected this question was coming, but still hoped that it wouldn't. I didn't know how I could ever tell him. Manny wouldn't understand. He held those killers so close to his heart. They were everything he wanted to be. He wouldn't understand the compassion I wanted to show Marco, the love Marco had for her.

"The host means something to someone on my team," I finally said.

"I understand. That's very hard."

"Can you spare her?"

His large hand lifted a fry to his mouth. He ate it, paused, and shook his head. "We've had this discussion before, believe me. We knew the host had family, but decided to overrule that fact. We already decided. I'm sorry."

"We can morph," I reminded him. "We'll guard her round-the-clock and I promise you she won't escape."

He shook his head. "You can't make that promise. Also, consider the capture itself. It's a lot easier to kill someone than it is to capture them alive."

"If you kill her, you're committing a murder and the cops will come after you, just like they came after those other guys," I tried.

Manny smirked. "The cops are already after us," he said. "They're controllers. They just don't realize who we are."

"But they'll have fingerprints, or... I don't know, _something._ You said it yourself, you can't get away with murder. They'll find you, jail you, infest you and your entire resistance. It's stupid to kill her."

"It would be," he agreed. "But believe me, I've thought of that already. How will we get away with murder? Dead skin cells are shed, hairs off our heads, fingerprints, like you said. But what if I could change my cells, my fingerprints... my very DNA?"

I raised my eyebrows. Was he asking for me to give him the power to morph?

"I don't have the blue box, if that's what you're getting at," I said, keeping my voice especially low. The blue box was the most important weapon we had.

"Blue box? What's that?"

"It's what gives us the power to morph. How else did you think we were able to?"

"I had no idea," he admitted. "I just knew it was true. I guess some kind of Andalite magic or something. But I was only suggesting that your team kill her for us."

"_My_ team?" I choked out. Here we go again. We'd been through the "going to kill Visser One" episode three times already, and I didn't care to go through it again. It would be so much nicer if Manny could just take care of things for us, since he wasn't emotionally involved. If anyone was going to kill her, I much preferred he do it.

"If you want my team to kill the visser, we will," I finally said. "But we'll do it our way... without killing the host."

"We don't have... urgh, I don't know." He fumbled for words. I wondered if he was just too frustrated to talk, or if he was having problems finding words in his English vocabulary that he could use. Because of his flawless grammar and faint accent, it was hard to remember that English was his second language.

"We can't have morals," he finally said. "Morals are good but when we fight a war to win, we aren't able to afford them. Morals are a luxury only civilians can afford."

"You won't change my mind on this," I said firmly. "It's not all about morals; it's also about a member of my team. I couldn't kill his mother."

"We also can't afford friends."

"You only say that because there's no one close to you with a Yeerk in their head," I said, starting to get a little defensive. For some reason, it wasn't about Marco and his mom anymore... it was about me and Tom. "You don't know what it's like. You wanna throw out emotions? Fine, this is business. What kind of war leader would order civilians on his side killed? Because that's what you're doing."

"Oh, I agree with you," he said. "Believe me. But this one time, I just think it's wiser to make an exception. Besides, she _is_ a civilian, so killing her won't mean loss of firepower. If she were a fighter she'd be more valuable, but she isn't."

I sighed. I didn't know what to say to that. "It still affects the fighters," I offered feebly. "It affects their morale. You know that attitude is just as important as strategy."

"What is morale?"

"Their attitude; how they feel."

"I thought we decided to get rid of emotion?"

He got me there. Not even my weakest defense could stand up against him. Finally, I tried, "No commanding officer would order civilians killed."

"Why is that?" he challenged. "Because it's not right? Not moral? We can't have morals in this war, this is a different kind. We can't just grab our guns and hold down the fort, run into enemy territory with the flag flying. There's never been a war like this. We need to fight accordingly. Sam understood that."

"Was he... he's the one that started your resistance?"

"Yes."

I spoke without even thinking. "Well, he was a murderer."

That got Manny going. He stood up suddenly, hitting the table and sending his chair falling backwards behind him. "You never knew him," he said. His tone was surprisingly calm, despite the angry expression on his face.

"Manny, a murderer is someone who kills someone else illegally. I don't need to personally know him to know if he's a murderer."

"He had justification," he seethed. "If the authorities knew what was going on, they wouldn't have been after him."

"Sit down and talk with me," I said. He shook his head stubbornly.

"Did the government give you permission to kill everyone on the other side? No? Then how are you not a murderer? You've killed countless intelligent beings, Jake. What, it's only murder if they're human? What separates us from them? Legs?"

"Well, it's certainly not our morality," I replied bitterly. "In those terms, there's no separation. We're very much just like the enemy."

Manny slammed his fist on the table and glared at me through his brown eyes. His voice now lower, he said, "You were not born to be moral. You were born to win a war. Do your job."


	10. Worn Out

MARCO

When Jake got back from his chat with Manny, I was still awake. Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and Ax had been asleep for awhile... Rachel and Cassie were out once Jake left, and Tobias and Ax fell asleep not long after. Tobias was actually his hawk self, and sleeping just outside in a tree. I could see him from where I was sitting in one of those hotel desk chairs that are too big for the desk. Ax also demorphed to Andalite, but he stayed inside the room. Actually, he was sleeping on the other bed, laying in a very deerlike fashion. He intended to sleep without any covers over himself, but after he fell asleep I got weirded out by a sleeping Andalite in our hotel room, so I covered him with the top sheet.

At first I said I wasn't sleeping because I didn't want to share a bed with a male alien. That was beyond a gay kind of weirdness; that was a gay bestiality kind of weirdness, with even a special kind of twist.

But the truth was, I knew that no matter how much I tried to fall asleep, it wouldn't happen. We were here again. Part of the stress I was feeling over my situation was the repetitiveness with which I faced this exact circumstance. I was debating killing my mother for the fourth time in my life. This was beyond anything anyone could help me with. The worst thing was, I kept thinking I had my mind made up, and kept being wrong. How could I tell if I'd made up my mind this time?

Jake got back in about an hour, with no food. He'd promised Tobias that he'd bring something back, but I was guessing there was more on his mind than food. They probably wouldn't be hungry once they woke up, anyways. But I was.

When he came in his hair was messed up, and his face distorted in a way that scared me. Being our leader, Jake's welfare was seen as the welfare of the group. When he knew what to do, we knew what to do. But when he fell apart, we fell apart. He looked as crappy as I must have.

"Hey," Jake said quietly, not wanting to wake the rest of them. When he walked in I'd had my elbows on the table, coming up to hold my resting head. He knew I'd been thinking.

"Hey," I replied, a little quieter than him. My voice was weaker, too, and I was embarrassed because of that. But it was Jake, after all, so I knew he understood. Still, I don't like showing weakness as a general rule.

"Are you okay?" he asked me.

"As okay as ever. Are _you_ okay?"

Jake shook his head and leaned against the long, short table the TV was on. "I have to face the fact that I might have been wrong my entire life. I don't know."

"What did he say?"

Jake looked behind himself to see Cassie and Rachel lying peacefully on the bed, sleeping. He nodded towards the door. "Let's get out of here."

I stood up without another word. Sometimes Jake and I had to hide what bothered us behind jokes and light talk. It was how we dealt with hard things; keeping everyday happiness in perspective reminded us that things would be okay eventually. But other times, when both of us were weighted down enough, it was time for a heart-to-heart.

Out in the hall, he shut the door and sat down. I sat across from him against the other wall and he started talking.

"He gave me this number," he began, pulling a torn scrap of lined paper from his pocket. "It's for one of their guys here in Spain. I guess we have to call them to set up the next meeting." Not caring, I didn't say anything in reply. Jake kept talking. "I didn't get a lot of new information," he said. "We kinda got off track and it ended in a philosophical debate. But they started because an ex-controller escaped the Yeerk pool. He was American, I think. Him and a buddy flew to Germany and talked with Manny, passing on their knowledge. After becoming wanted serial killers, they both committed suicide before the Yeerks could re-infest him."

Horrible as this sounds, I didn't care very much. I was still too preoccupied with thinking about my mom. The story would have meant more to me if I knew what was bothering Jake, but since I didn't, it was just more information. And I didn't care all that much about information at the moment.

"Wow," I said. "That's... crazy."

"Is what they did okay?

"Okay? What do you mean?"

"They killed the human hosts, Marco. All of them. Manny's group doesn't do that often anymore, I don't think, but that's what Sam and the other guy did. They killed _all_ of them." He looked down and shook his head. "They... don't see the difference between killing humans and killing Yeerks."

I asked the question before it processed in my head what I was saying. "What _is_ the difference?" Once I'd said it, I regretted it. That question was going to haunt him, and I knew it.

He looked up at me and his eyes scared me. I don't know what it was about them – they weren't watering, they weren't bloodshot, they weren't unusually large – but I could see his affliction in them. And I could relate.

"You think something separates us from animals?" he replied. I nodded.

"Sure. We're sentient."

"It's easy to tell because we're familiar with them. But now we meet aliens, and who knows what to think? Are the aliens like animals, or are they like... you know, people?"

I hated to say it, but I had to. "They're sentient, too. We've talked to them. We've become friends with some of them."

"But how-"

"Jake, you can't second-guess this war." I leaned forward and forgot about my own problems for a minute. "Yeah, they're sentient and so are we. Who cares? The Nazis were sentient, too, but they had to die. War is justified sometimes, and war always includes killing. You can't get around it. You're doing what has to be done."

He played with the paper in his hand, twisting it around so it slanted one way, then another. "If I'm doing what has to be done by killing sentient Yeerks, then... then how can I say it's wrong to kill sentient humans in the same war?"

"Because the humans didn't do anything wrong and the Yeerks did," I replied. He was quiet for a while, then began nodding slowly.

"Yeah... yeah, you're right. The difference is who's innocent. You're right, Marco."

"Manny is..." I paused and thought about what I was saying. If I said Manny was wrong, I was saying we shouldn't kill my mom. If I said we shouldn't kill my mom, what did that mean? Was that weakness? Or was it really true? "...wrong," I finished. I said it so that Jake would feel better, not because I believed it. I believed we could kill my mom if we had to. What I said had no meaning whatsoever. It was just to make him feel better. Yeah. I'd said it for him.

"Are _you_ okay?" he asked me. I didn't respond right away, because he knew the answer. The answer was, I didn't know.

"Jake, don't worry about me. At all. What has to be done has to be done. Just do what you're here to do, whatever that is."

"That's what he said."

I blinked, unsure of how to reply. "Well, I guess only you know what that is, exactly."

"Marco... leading was always fine when we had to do a school project, or figure out what time to leave for a movie. But when it comes down to war, I don't know that I want to do it anymore."

"Jake, you're the best leader we could have. Rachel would have us all killed. I'd never get anything done, and neither would Cassie, but for different reasons. Ax has no idea what's going on, and Tobias is just too... he would never make a decision."

"I can't, either," Jake muttered, staring straight in front of him, studying everything and nothing. It was scary to see him so zombielike.

"How many missions have you won? How many have we survived?"

"Maybe one day we won't. I don't know if I wanna be responsible for that one."

"Jake, you can't be afraid to fail. At this point, we've gotten so much farther than any of us imagined, and as far as I'm concerned, we already won." I knew my mom was stressing him out like crazy, so I added, "And whatever decisions you make, about anything, we know are the best decisions a person can make because you've gotten us this far. So whatever you do about Visser One," he flinched when I said the name, "I won't regret following your orders, ever. No matter what you tell me to do."

He nodded slowly. "Well, Marco," he said. "I want to be done." He crumpled up the phone number and tossed it at me, and then he did the scariest thing I've ever seen Jake do; he stood up and started walking away from me, down the hall.

"Where are you going?" I demanded, panicking. "Jake! You have nowhere to go; we're in freaking Spain!"

Jake didn't even turn around to reply, but I heard him say, "Back later."

And as I watched him walk away, I knew there was only one thing I could do. I had to go behind his back and make the decision I knew he wasn't capable of. I also had to make sure someone else could hold up to pressure and not break where I potentially would. I had to talk to Manny, and no Animorphs could know about it.

A/N: Until this point, these chapters have been pre-written. (Meaning, from the time I posted chapter 1, all these chapters have already been written and sitting on my computer.) But at this point, I have none left, so I'll be posting chapters as soon as I write them up. That means if I hit a block, I'm very, very sorry. :p But I will do my best to keep this thing going in a timely manner.

A/N #2: Heh, okay, I wrote myself into a brick wall. The Animorphs have no way to contact the IYR, and the IYR has no way to contact the Animorphs. So the story's over! (jk :p ) So if you were to go back to chapter 9, you'll see I added a part where Manny gives Jake a phone number. That's what that was all about in this chapter. lol I got to this point and was like "crap... how will they ever meet again?" Yeah, okay, so I didn't work out all the kinks... forgive that little bump, now we're rollin' again.


	11. Marco's Plan

MARCO

I called the phone number on the paper from the phone in the lobby. I didn't want anyone in the room waking up and hearing what I was setting up. Funny how I'd rather have random people in the lobby hear over my own fellow Animorphs.

"¿Hola?"

"Tell me you speak English," I said, almost more to myself than to the guy on the other line.

He paused, then said something aside to someone else in Spanish. Then he said, "yeah, I speak English. Who is this?"

"We met at the airport. Jake's team."

"Ooooh." Another pause. More Spanish. "Right. Why are you calling?"

"I need someone with some power to meet me. I have some important news."

"Is this Jake?"

"No, this is one of his team."

Pause. Spanish. "Do you have authority?"

As far as I was concerned, the Animorphs were a democracy. Sure, Jake headed up a lot of it, but if we were ever unhappy with the plan, he was very accommodating. So we all kinda held the same amount of power. "Yeah, I have authority." Was that a lie?

"How much?"

"I can persuade Jake to do pretty much anything." Another slight lie, but not totally off. I could remember several occasions I'd convinced him to do things my way instead of his way.

"We can't get a hold of Manny right now, but Momo is here. She can meet with you."

"Who's Momo?"

"She's the decoding specialist for the German team."

What in the world was a decoding specialist? "And she... she has authority?"

"She can convince Manny to do pretty much anything."

I smirked. Okay, sure, dude had a sense of humor. "When and where can she meet?"

"Is that McDonald's okay? Do you know the way to anywhere else?"

"McDonald's would be fantastic."

"What?"

Note to self: don't use big words. "Yeah. McDonald's is good."

"Can you be there in fifteen minutes?"

How long would it take to walk there? "Yeah. Sure."

"Bueno. Hasta luego." _Click._

The phone call had gone a lot smoother than I'd seen it going, but I wasn't sure why. Maybe I thought that deep down inside myself, I wouldn't be able to do it. Or maybe I expected some kind of language barrier to make it harder, who knew? But for some reason, things felt oddly and uncomfortably fine.

I'm a skeptic by nature, so whenever things go too smoothly, my senses heighten. I guess I didn't like how accommodating they were. Shouldn't Raúl have had plans to hang with his buddies or something? And what was up with the Spanish asides? Who had he been telling about my call? It obviously wasn't Momo, because she didn't speak Spanish. Did she?

I tried to figure out the entire world during the ten-minute walk to McDonald's. The only thing I figured out by the time I got there was that the streets in Madrid did not run gridlike like they often do in American cities. That was both annoying and confusing.

When I got there I darted for the bathroom, took my outer clothes off, and morphed my mix. Then I put my clothes back on, the jeans still a little shorter than I liked them. I walked out and searched for familiar faces. They spotted me before I spotted them.

The German girl waved. There were just two of them: the German girl and a Spanish boy. They were sitting next to each other. I sat across from the girl.

"Did Jake send you?" Momo asked me. She sounded way too excited, like she was asking me about some kind of celebrity news.

"Um..." While trying to figure out the world during my walk, I'd failed to figure out if I should lie to them or not about what Jake's "orders" were. But these people seemed very hierarchical, with their bowing low in Manny's presence and demanding to know if I had "authority." I was fairly certain that if I said I was going behind my leader's back, they'd look down on me. "Yeah, Jake sent me. He's tired, and he was just here, so he didn't want to come back. We aren't used to Spanish time yet."

She nodded. "Yeah, I understand. We don't know where Manny is. He hasn't come back yet."

Maybe that was suspicious, but I figured she didn't know any more than that, so I didn't bother to ask details. "Interesting."

"Yeah. We have no way of contacting him."

"Maybe he got lost."

"Maybe."

I realized they were both just nodding and staring at me, so I cleared my throat and said, "Anyways, Jake changed his mind after talking with him. He wanted me to let you guys know that we're willing to let you kill the Visser's host."

Again, it's amazing how easy it was for me to say.

Both of their eyes widened a little, but Momo looked more excited and Raúl looked more shocked. "That's good news," Momo said. "I'm glad we aren't divided on the issue. We hoped to unite with your team."

I nodded, but Raúl wasn't nearly as happy to hear the news as Momo was. He looked suspicious. "So Jake said that _we_ should kill her?"

Why was he looking at me like that? I swallowed, and realized my nose itched. No, don't scratch it, Marco. It'll make you look nervous, give you away. I resisted the urge.

"Yep, he said go right ahead. Once you kill her, we trust you, and we have an alliance."

"He must not have talked to Manny."

"What? Of course he talked to Manny. They-"

"Manny meant to propose the idea that your team kill her."

Busted. Kind of. _No, this is salvageable,_ I told myself. _Just calm down._

"Right," I said, like I knew it all along. "But Jake... he doesn't want to do it. He doesn't want _us_ to do it. It's against his principles, y'know, but he said it's okay if you guys do it. We won't stop you."

"But if anyone kills her, it has to be you. We'll be caught. It has to be someone with morph capabilities."

I hadn't even thought of that, but Raúl was totally right. If they did it, they'd leave behind something to trace the crime back to them. But I also knew that Jake would never believe me when I said it was okay for us to kill her. So if I wanted this, I'd have to really commit.

Finally, it was hard. In fact, I had to choke out the next few words.

"He... also said that," I added. "That's why he sent me." I hesitated. Suddenly, I had a migraine. And my stomach didn't feel right. "I'll do it," I said.

After all my hard work, he was still skeptical. "Jake sent you to tell us to tell you to kill her?" he asked dryly. I nodded.

"He wanted you to know he changed his mind."

"What are you going to do?" Momo asked me. Again, she asked the question as if asking one of her girl friends what outfit she was going to wear on her first date. This Momo girl reminded me of Manny; way too cheery and upbeat.

"I'll... morph, and kill her," I replied. "Probably gorilla." I hesitated again, but they both looked at me expectantly. They wanted details? Wanted to know the plan? "Smack her around," I said slowly. Yeah, it was hard. My head pounded. Stomach bubbled up more and more with each word. "...for awhile. She won't last long." Images, horrible images in my head of me, Marco, not the gorilla but the boy, the son... "smacking around" my mother. Abusing her. It was something I never, ever thought I would do. I loved her so much. The mental pictures made my sickness worse.

"That's it? That's the plan?" Raúl demanded. What did this kid want from me?

"Yeah, that's the plan," I snapped. "What? You don't think a gorilla can kill someone? I've killed more Hork-Bajir with the gorilla than you have teeth, pal. A gorilla can do it."

I shut up and looked around, finally aware of our surroundings. We were in freaking McDonald's. It wasn't even some kind of special restaurant that was scarcely-populated because of its exclusivity. _Everyone_ was here.

Fortunately I hadn't said that as loud as I thought, because nobody was looking at us oddly. But, hanging with Jake for so long made me suspicious. Maybe a Controller heard, but was just pretending like they didn't care in order not to give themselves away. Maybe I was already dead.

"Don't worry," Raúl told me, sensing my paranoia. "Spain doesn't have many Controllers."

"It only takes one," I replied. "Can we talk somewhere more private?"

"I think we're pretty much done here," Momo replied. "We only have to know when you're planning on doing this."

"Oh... y'know, whenever," I offered. My stomach was really starting to worry me.

"We don't know where she is," Raúl added. "We need your help to find her."

"Me, personally? Or my team?"

"Either. If you think you can do it alone, by all means..."

I didn't think I could do it alone, but I knew I couldn't enlist the other Animorphs' help, either. "Sure I can," I replied. "I just need someone who knows the area."

"Not a problem," Raúl assured me. "I know this city. I used to live here."

How in the world was I supposed to find the visser? "Great," I said. "We can... uh..."

"You don't know how to find her?"

"If I knew how to find her, she'd be dead already," I replied. "I'm thinking we'll just scout the area and be on the lookout for her, her car, or any familiar-looking Controllers." Raúl nodded. I sounded official enough. "I'll probably do a bird morph," I added. "So I can see more." He continued to nod.

"When do you want to do this?" Momo asked. "And, will you kill her the same day you find her?"

"No." Why not? I didn't know. The word came out before I even thought about it. My stomach calmed down a little, but not completely. "We have to check her out first, find out what she's using for Kandrona rays, if she's got a portable pool or using a more public one, how many goons she has on her, private and public, etc. We can't just run in and do it."

Then it came.

All of a sudden my stomach was in my mouth, and then, on the table. I made a disgusting roar-like noise as I vomited all over the McDonald's table. Momo and Raúl scrambled to get as far away from the table as possible, but we were in a booth, and they didn't think to slide out. They just scrunched up as far as they could against the back. Momo looked like she'd be sick herself.

I felt horrible, and didn't know what to do. _Now_ people were looking. They didn't look at "gorillas can kill a lot of Hork-Bajir" but they did look when the American boy threw up. Figures.

I said the only thing I could think to say. "Sorry. I'm so sorry. Motion sickness from the airplane catching up with me."

Momo still looked like she was going to be sick herself. Raúl grabbed her hand and led her out of the booth. "It's okay," he told me. "We better get out of here. You should get some rest. Uh... day after tomorrow, here? Okay?"

I nodded, trying to ignore the colorful mess I'd made. "Yeah, sure, what time?"

"Morning. Nine or something."

"Nine it is."

Momo covered her mouth. Raúl rushed her outside to the sidewalk, but I guess the fresh air did her good. She took in some deep breaths and I saw them walk away.

How would I explain the smell of my clothes when I got back to the hotel?

How would I explain randomly leaving in the morning a couple days later?

Where had Jake gone? And where was Manny?

And why didn't the hotel have MTV?


	12. Rachel's Plan

A/N: Most of the rest of the story will be Marco's POV, because I figure this is largely his story. But I'll keep putting the names at the beginning of chapters, just so it's completely clear who's telling what. But expect mostly Marco.

MARCO

I hadn't figured out anything by the time I got back to the hotel, besides what to tell my fellow Animorphs. The funny part was that after all my plotting and scheming, I'd forgotten a keycard to the room. So I knocked on the door and Jake opened it.

"Where have you been?" he demanded. He must have been feeling better. He sounded like a leader – or rather, a dad – again.

"I'm taking care of everything," I told him. He eyed me suspiciously as I walked into the room. Everybody was awake, Ax was in human morph, and Tobias was still in his tree outside, preening his feathers. "You kinda resigned, didn't you?"

"I didn't resign," Jake replied. He looked pissed. "I was frustrated."

"I know this mission is stressful for all of us, especially you. And after you told me you wanted to be done, I decided to take care of everything."

"What did you do?" Rachel asked me. I felt like I was in a huge court case, with everyone staring at me intently. Here goes nothing.

"I convinced them to starve the yeerk. The only thing we have to do - well, _I_ have to do - is meet up with them in a couple days and help them find her with a bird morph. It won't be hard. They'll take care of the capture, they'll hold her for three days, they'll guard her and everything." I put on a big smile for an added effect. "So don't worry about a thing, ol' Marco's got it covered."

"How did you convince them to do all that?" Cassie asked.

"Oh, I can be very persuasive. Besides, Momo was there, and I'm _especially_ persuasive with the female gender." I winked. _Sell it, Marco, sell it._

"I don't believe this," Jake said. He was still looking at me kinda unbelievingly, but some of his skepticism was gone. Not all of it, but some. I could tell he wanted to believe me.

"Consider it a favor," I said. "After our chat in the hall, I knew how much this decision-making was weighing on you. Meeting up with Manny was hard, he must've really grilled you. So I figured I could go and talk with them, share the load. But don't expect a birthday present."

Finally, there it was. Jake smiled and I knew I had him. "This was probably our easiest mission yet."

"Speak for yourself. That Momo's a tough one."

Jake laughed and gave me a hug. I patted him on the back and we broke. I felt horrible for some reason, I guess because I was lying to him and I'd gone behind his back in the first place. But it was _my_ mother, and I had the right to decide what her fate should be. Didn't I? Why should Jake even care so much? This was my choice, and I had every right to set in motion whatever plan I wanted.

"Did we miss something?" Rachel asked. "What's going on with you guys? Jake, you're acting pretty moody."

"Jake wasn't happy after he met with Manny," I explained.

"Why not?"

"Manny hit on him."

Jake laughed. Yeah, he was back. I'd done my job here. "It's not important," Jake said. "It looks like everything's gonna be okay."

"So, when are you meeting them?" Cassie asked me, leaning on the bed with one arm, propping her torso up.

"Two days from now, at the ol' McDonald's. They're gonna get sick of all these foreign kids running in and out of there."

Jake made a face and sat down on the bed Ax was on, watching the TV. "Speaking of sick, what's that smell?"

I laughed. Oh yeah, that. "Heh, I kinda... threw up while I was there."

"You did? Why?"

"Um, I was sick?"

Rachel gave me a weird look. I could fool Jake and Cassie with my "great news," but she was as much of a cynic as I was, and she didn't believe for a second that I would throw up, just to throw up. She knew I'd been feeling fine earlier, and something serious must have gone down to get me physically sick over it.

Jake, on the other hand, looked confused, but he shook it off. He trusted me. "You should wash those."

"Yeah, probably."

I looked at Rachel, nervous but trying to hide it. She was glaring at me, but she didn't say anything else to challenge me. That is, until supper time.

Jake, Cassie, Tobias, and Ax had decided to go outside and see what there was around here to eat. I told them I wasn't hungry, because I wasn't. Maybe I was still nervous. Correction: I was definitely still nervous. And Rachel? I didn't know exactly why she stayed back with me. But she did.

The second they left she stood up, clearly aggravated by her body language. She grabbed my smelly shirt and dragged me into the bathroom, shutting the door hard behind me. Pinned me against the door with her arms on either side.

"Rachel, you know I've had dreams about this?"

"Shut up," she spat. "I don't appreciate being lied to, so you're going to tell me what's going on."

Of course I knew she wasn't going to torture me or anything like that, but there was an anger in her eyes I couldn't ignore. Yeah, I was a little afraid of her. It wasn't that I was afraid of her hurting me or anything, it just scared me to see her like this. I'd seen her mad before, but her anger was always directed towards the enemy, not me. It was a frightening thing to be the object of Rachel's wrath.

She saw me hesitate and continued. "Look, you can trust me. I won't tell Jake what's going on, I promise. Just don't give me a load of bullshit, okay? Because I see through it."

"Why should I tell you anything?" I demanded.

Rachel sighed and stepped away from me. She paced a couple of times – in the small hotel bathroom, which meant about two steps either way. Then she said, "Because I know something about the other team that might interest you."

"Do you?"

"Yeah, I'm better at keeping secrets than you are."

I raised my eyebrow. What could Rachel possibly know about them? And how? If it were Cassie I might believe her, because 1) Cassie doesn't lie, and 2) she'd spent some time alone with Manny. If she told me that Manny had said something to her meant to be kept in confidence, I'd believe it. But Rachel had been with the rest of us the whole time, so whatever she knew, I knew. There was no way she was in on a secret of theirs.

"How would you know anything about them?"

"Did you notice anything weird about the meeting we had with them when we first met? All the Animorphs and all of them in that basement?"

I wanted to say "yes, as a matter of fact, I know exactly what you know." But the truth was, I hadn't noticed anything weird about that meeting. "Um, none of the Germans had jet lag?"

"It's not the Germans I'm worried about," Rachel replied. "Manny's tough, but he's a good guy deep down. It's the Spaniards."

"What about them?"

She glared at me, looked me right square in the eye. "Tell me what's going on, and I'll tell you what I know."

"Have you told Jake?"

"I haven't told anyone. Just like you haven't told anyone _your_ plan."

"How do you know _anything_?" I demanded. This was driving me crazy. Yeah, I wanted to know what she knew. But at the same time I wondered if she was just going to make something up to get me to talk. I wouldn't put that past her.

"I told you, I picked up on something no one else did. It wasn't even the meeting, it was before it. It was when we were chasing the visser down, and right once she got away. You didn't notice anything about the way they behaved?"

"I've noticed they place a lot of weight on who has what kind of power."

Rachel nodded. "Exactly."

"What does that mean?"

She smiled knowingly and shook her head. "Tell me what you're up to."

I sighed. She'd already promised she wouldn't tell Jake, so maybe I could tell her. I doubted she'd try to stop me. She might try to talk me out of it, _maybe,_ but she wouldn't interfere, and she wouldn't tell anyone. Rachel wasn't a rat. Despite her shrew morph.

"I'm going to help them kill her," I told her. "Jake's gone soft. He can't give the order anymore. He's given it three times and it always goes awry. He doesn't have the guts anymore. You should have seen him before; he had a total meltdown after talking with Manny. Someone else has to step up, so I did."

"_You_'re going to kill her?" Rachel asked. I nodded, and she smirked. "You sure that's a good idea?"

"It's the only way. Someone's gotta make a decision around here."

She nodded and paced a couple times again. "You might need my help."

"I might?"

"Yeah. No offense, Marco, but-"

"Don't even say it. I've been more than willing, every time."

She turned around to face me and held her hands up in defense. "Hey, look, you're a good soldier. And a good guy. But accidents happen. I just think you'll need someone else there you can trust to cover your butt. You can't trust these other guys."

It sounded legit enough, and I knew Rachel well enough to know she was sincere. She wanted in on the action. That was so Rachel. "Fine, you can come with me. Now what do you know?"

"You said they care a lot about the totem pole, right? Who's high, who's low?" I nodded. That much was obvious. "Raúl doesn't follow the totem pole. I've been watching his expressions, and he thinks he's pretty hot stuff. He thinks he can run this thing better than Manny can. He doesn't _trust_ Manny. First sign of things going wrong, he'll bail. The others will follow Manny off a cliff, but Raúl's not like the rest of them."

I raised my eyebrows. Funny it was Raúl. Funny it was the guy who's phone number we had, and who'd met me at McDonald's. Of course! He told me over the phone that Momo was the person to talk to, but he'd probably insisted he come along. And he did all the business talking while we were there. Momo was excited about playtime, but Raúl was strategizing. He was the weak link in Manny's chain. He could become a traitor.

"You're totally right," I said. "Raúl... he's looking out for number one."

Rachel nodded. "But don't worry about him; I have it covered."

"You do?"

"You're not the only person around who's persuasive with the opposite gender, Marco."

"But what about bird boy?"

Rachel shook her head and was clearly annoyed that I'd even mentioned it. "This is business. You know that."

I smirked. "You have a plan."

She nodded. "I have a plan, you have a plan, Manny's got a plan, and darned if Raúl doesn't have his own plan. It's all a matter of who acts first."

"You're going to meet up with him?"

She nodded again, an evil smirk on her face. "I'll take care of Raúl, you just take care of your mom."

My mom.


	13. The Date

RACHEL

So Marco and I talked for awhile while the rest of them were out eating, or exploring, or doing whatever they were doing. They were actually gone for a couple of hours, which surprised me, but it was convenient. The first thing we had to do was figure out exactly _what_ I wanted to get from Raúl. We knew that Raúl would turn on Manny if the situation called for it, and that might be helpful, but at the moment, it wasn't, really.

The thing was that we were on Manny's side for the moment. Manny wanted to kill Visser One's host, and so did we (sorta. But I maintained that this wasn't something that Marco really wanted to do, that's a whole other subject.) So we decided that first things first: we just wanted to confirm that Raúl wouldn't follow Manny off a cliff. Once we knew that, we could keep our eyes open, and if Manny ever did something we didn't like, we would know we could count on Raúl for extra backup.

Marco gave me his number, and I called Raúl and asked him to meet me at the McDonald's the next day, which was the day before him and Marco were going to go visser hunting. Marco and I had decided we needed to start working on Raúl as soon as possible. As for my reason for meeting with him, that was a little harder. But we had most of the kinks worked out. Besides, this meeting was supposed to be more pleasure than business.

There was a limited amount of things I could do with the outfit I'd bought at the airport, but I had to look attractive for my meeting with Raúl. Jake refused to buy the "unnecessaries": all things for hair, makeup, accessories, jewelry... which made it pretty hard for me to look as good as I normally do.

So I did the only thing I could – I went to the local mall, to a makeup store, and tried on some samples. In my opinion, I looked pretty good. The only problem now was my lack of jewelry. I craved some dangly earrings or a cute necklace, but I had absolutely no money. So for now, makeup would just have to do the trick.

I met with Raúl in the afternoon at McDonald's. I grabbed a strawberry shake since I got there before he did, and sat down. When he got there I smiled at him, as large as I could without looking fakey. He had to think I was exceptionally glad to see him. He was alone. Good.

He sat down across from me and returned my smile, but he wasn't as flirtatious as I was. He was just smiling to be nice.

"What's going on?"

"I hope you don't mind coming here," I told him. "I didn't want to say a lot about this stuff over the phone."

"No, this is fine," he replied. "Why did you call?"

"Really, just to clear a change in plans." He raised his eyebrows.

"Change in plans?"

"Yeah." I nodded and paused, just looking into his eyes and smiling flirtatiously. It was a test. If he looked bored, or just looked at me expectantly, he wasn't buying it. But if he smirked – just like that – he was all mine.

I found myself wondering how fast I was going to move this thing. I didn't want to act like a total slut, but at the same time I figured I'd better move it somewhat fast, before we ran out of business things to talk about.

I spoke slowly, careful to watch my body language in a way that said, "I'm a poor, lonely, foreign girl and what happens in Spain, stays in Spain." "He told me I could come along and help."

"Help? He said he could do it alone."

"Well, he mentioned you were going to be there." I blinked and pulled my chin down a tad, for a coy look. "I told him I wanted to come and help."

His smile grew. Yeah, I had him. "Thanks for letting me know," he said. Then, "Now that that's over, would you like to take a walk?"

Score. "I'd love to." He stood up first and took my hand, pulling me to my own feet. _Ooh, a gentleman, huh?_ I thought. He'd officially impressed me.

Raúl was actually pretty cute. I don't mean to sound too Disney princess, but the truth is, I didn't really check out guys anymore. I was so sure that Tobias was the only guy I wanted, and even though our relationship was on hold, I was still definitely reserving myself and all romance for him. And I hadn't even noticed how good-looking Raúl was until now, when I was faking affection for him. But while I was here, I might as well check him out.

Nice body. Could be better, but it was fine how it was. He didn't have huge biceps or anything, but he was... fine. Average, I guess. No fat or anything, so that was good. Not a toothpick, but not incredibly broad. Again, average. But he had a cute face. Great hair, actually. Yeah, the hair was his redeeming feature. It was a little bit long for a guy, but not long enough to be put in a ponytail or anything like that. A few inches. Styled nicely, a messy kind of style, but with gel in it to be sure it was done that way on purpose. A really good look for him. Kinda metro.

We walked outside and took a look around. "Where do you want to go?" he asked me. I smiled.

"Shopping?"

He laughed and nodded. "Sure. Ever heard of el Corte Inglés?"

"El wha'?"

"So you speak German, but no Spanish, huh?" He laughed a little bit again and started to lead me to the left. I followed him.

"German? So you caught that, huh?"

"How much have you taken?"

"Just three years. We were required to take two, but there was a-" I hesitated and smirked a little. Maybe it wasn't a great idea to talk about other guys in front of one I was trying to hook. But he looked at me expectantly, and he probably already knew what I was going to say, so I might as well say it. "-a guy I liked, so I stuck with it for another year."

He nodded, a huge smile still on his face. "Anything happen with him?"

"He helped me with the units I'd slept through in German 1 and 2, but he's history by now."

"Any other men in your life?"

_Just the one I've decided I love and won't date anyone else until the war's over and we can finally get serious._ "Nope, not since German 3. What about you?"

"Oh, I've never really met a man I was seriously interested in." I laughed. It was an obvious joke, but I respect a guy comfortable enough in his sexuality to even mention the idea of being gay, even as a joke. "Really, though," he continued, "this war has pretty much consumed my entire life. I haven't had time to romance many women."

"I doubt it takes much effort for you to attract women." He looked at me and I flashed him a model smile. Not an "I want you" smile, but an "I'm gorgeous and I know it" smile. I had to balance it out so I didn't look too desperate, but I was pretty sure he was mine already.

"You'd be surprised. I'm a pretty huge geek once you get to know me."

It sounds funny, but for some reason, the word "geek" stood out to me. I was surprised that someone who had English as a second language would know it, I guess.

"I'd like that," I said. He stopped walking and looked at me, so I clarified. "Getting to know you."

He grabbed my hand and put his fingers between my own. My heart skipped a couple times, but I tried to forget that fact. _Tobias, Tobias,_ I told myself. _Forget metro Spanish boy. Tobias._

We walked a few more blocks and he pointed in front of us with the hand that wasn't holding my own. "That's el Corte Inglés," he told me. It was a huge building – think Mall of America huge – and said "El Corte Inglés" in white letters. I breathed in sharply.

"Wow, it's huge," I said. "Is that a mall?"

Raúl shook his head. "Nope, it's one store. But it's kinda like a mall; they sell _everything_."

He said "kinda." Not "kind of." "Kinda."

_Quit being so paranoid, Rachel,_ I told myself. _He's been speaking English for a long time, it's only natural that is words would start to run into each other after awhile._

"It's amazing," I stated. "Is it expensive?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Pretty cheap."

"Let's go!"

We made it to the place and I got rather attached to a glorious purse. It was black with neon words all over it – in Spanish, that I didn't understand – and a neon orange leather strap. It was glorious. I told him how gorgeous I thought it was and carried it around for a bit, and he ended up buying it for me. Afterwards we made our way over to a local restaurant where he bought me dinner. It wasn't an incredibly fancy place, but it definitely wasn't our local McDonald's. It was a sit-down restaurant, not very cheap from what I could tell (though I wasn't incredibly familiar with the Euro to dollar conversion), but was very loud. It seemed like the kind of scene the local young adults loved to hit up. A very unique place, because it was upscale but not snooty, expensive but not stuffy. Relaxed and hip, yet nice enough to take a date. I loved it, and wondered why we didn't have any places like that in the states.

"This place is great," I told him. "I love Madrid."

Raúl nodded. "It's a great city. I used to live here."

"Where do you live now?"

"Andalucía. It's in southern Spain."

"Is that... a city? Or like a state?"

He laughed. "It's like a state. A province."

"What city do you live in?"

He pressed his lips together for a second. I didn't know what that meant. "Córdoba. It's in northern Andalucía."

"So it's in northern southern Spain?" I asked. Raúl laughed.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Why are the streets here so weird?"

"The streets used to be routes that people used, either on foot or later on horses. From the ancient times, there were dirt paths they followed. In those days they didn't plan how to map out a city; they just walked or rode where they walked or rode. Eventually they paved them." He shrugged. "It's just because the city is so old. America can't relate to that."

I nodded and sipped on a glass of cherry coke. "That's true. But it's hard to find your way around."

"Just make sure you use taxis," he advised with a smirk. "Tell them where you want to go, and they'll get you there."

"I don't have money for a taxi."

"Then you'll just have to hang out with someone who knows their way around, huh?" A twinkle in his eye. Charming smile. He took my hands – both of them – in his.

"I've had a lot of fun today, Rachel."

I didn't even have to lie. "Me, too."

"How long will you stay?"

I winced. That was a great question. "We can stay however long this thing takes, but I do have to go home eventually."

He nodded. "And I don't imagine your team would want to stay very long. Probably wouldn't want you to stay here alone."

"No, they wouldn't."

Our food game and he let go of my hands. I hated to part with his touch, to be honest. I still loved Tobias, but I think I was in love with the idea of being in love. I longed for romance. It wasn't that I was turning my back on Tobias, it's just that it was nice to feel a man's affectionate touch now and then. Tobias didn't treat me like Raúl did.

I poked at my plate for a moment. "What did you order for me?" I demanded. He laughed.

"It has a lot of different things in it. Callos a la Madrileña."

I frowned. "What is that?" I asked, slightly afraid of the answer.

He took a bite of his own food, chewed, pointed at my own with his fork but didn't open his mouth until he swallowed. "That," he replied, "is veal knuckle split in half. You can also order it with pig's foot, but I thought you would prefer cow."

I made a face. Veal knuckle? What the heck? "That sounds disgusting."

"It has a lot of extra ingredients with it. Onions and peppers, honeycomb, white wine, tomatoes, nutmeg, sausage, bay leaves..."

It was starting to sound better. I took a small bite and my mouth exploded in flavor. Not spicy, just... a lot of different flavors all going on at once. I didn't know which one to focus on. It was like nothing I'd ever tasted.

"This is incredible!" I said. He laughed.

"City of Madrid's specialty. You can get it other places in Spain, but it's not the same as it is here. Nobody makes it like Madrid makes it."

"What did you order?"

"Fried fish. Want some?"

I made a face. "I don't like fish."

"You eat veal and not fish?"

"Well... I don't usually eat veal, either," I admitted. He chuckled.

"I'm glad you like it."

"It's amazing. What's this called, again?"

"Callos a la Madrileña."

"What does that mean?"

Again, he paused as he chewed and swallowed his bit of fish. "Cow or pig, Madrid style."

"So callo means cow or pig?" I asked, smirking. He laughed.

"No, callo means... I don't know, callo is just the name of the dish. And the dish is always made of cow or pig."

"Heh, okay."

We each took a few bites, and then he was the one who shifted the conversation to the war. "Jake seems pretty uptight, don't you think?"

"Oh, he's..." I tried to excuse it, but I realized that compared to Manny, he was totally right. "Yeah, he's uptight," I admitted. He laughed again, and I joined him in the laughter.

Suddenly, Raúl stopped laughing and even his smile was gone. He was all business, completely serious now. "He seems very set on saving the visser."

It was a test. If I said the natural thing ("yep, he sure wants to save that visser") Raúl would know that Marco and I were going behind his back. But I wasn't so relaxed that I didn't catch the bait. I knew exactly what he was doing. "He was," I said, "but after he talked with Manny for a bit, he came to see the necessity. It's hard because Jake knows a lot of controllers – we all do, since the invasion is strong in America – and he sometimes thinks of them when talking about the visser. But he knows this is a big thing, and it's not worth the risk."

Raúl nodded and took another bite. I stabbed some more veal knuckle and put it in my mouth. He opened his mouth to say something else, but I beat him to the next comment. "What about Manny? I've never imagined a leader like him. Sometimes he seems so relaxed, and yet he's so... he's got so much power."

Raúl nodded and wiped his mouth with his napkin, then put it back on his lap politely. "Yes, Manny has... complete and total control of everything."

I listened for bitterness in his voice, but didn't hear it this time. I was surprised, because I was so sure I'd seen it in his face a couple days earlier. "Is that okay? We operate a lot more like a democracy."

"Funny how that works, isn't it? The Americans operate like a democracy, and the rest of us operate like a monarchy."

"Is Spain a monarchy?"

He nodded. "We have a royal family and all of that. And of course, they make all of the decisions. Just like Manny."

There it was. There was bitterness in that one.

"But he's smart, right?"

"He was," Raúl admitted. "But he's had a few gaping holes in this plan so far. If it weren't for you guys showing up, we'd probably still be at the airport waiting for her to get here. We never would have recognized her. Manny... he's not as sharp as he used to be."

"Well, all the pressure must be hard," I said. "Do you really think you could do much better?" My turn to test him.

He set his fork down and looked me square in the eye. "Seriously? Of course. Everyone thinks the world of Manny, but he's nothing special. I know he runs the entire international resistance – and I respect anyone who can lead something that huge – but he was _not_ the best person for the job."

That was it; I had him. Now I knew for sure that Raúl wasn't going to mindlessly follow Manny around like the rest of them. If we were going to get any help from these international kids, Raúl was the one we'd get it from.

When we finished dinner I asked him to take me back to McDonald's, and I'd find my way to the hotel from there. He offered to take me back to the hotel, but I told him Jake would get mad if he found out Raúl knew where we were staying. He understood, and didn't question that at all. He just wanted to be a gentleman.

Before we parted we shared a quick kiss. It was nothing, really, but I couldn't help but think how I'd feel if I saw Tobias kiss another girl. I knew he wouldn't, and I knew he hadn't seen Raúl and me, but if he had... he would have felt horrible. Just like I'd feel if I knew he had something going on with someone else.

But another part of me didn't even care.

A/N: Okay, I don't think it's likely, but I MIGHT get a complaint or two from an R/T enthusiast. R/T is my favorite, believe me, and I'm not going to rip them apart in this fic. But I do think this chapter was realistic. Even when you like someone, if nothing is happening, it's easy to get distracted by someone else. So even though we all know Rachel loves Tobias, I think this chapter is totally plausable. And while a "little something" might start to go on between her and metro Spanish boy, you will just have to trust me that, in the end, her and Tobias will end up together. Do you trust me?

And I don't think I've stuck a disclaimer in here yet, so for the record, I don't own Animorphs.


	14. Secret

MANNY

"Where were you, Raúl?" I asked him as he walked into the hotel room. Pepe and Beto were watching TV, and now and then they'd talk in Spanish. I couldn't understand a thing going on in that room.

Raúl shut the door behind him and tossed his wallet on the counter. "Another meeting," he replied. I raised my eyebrows.

"Without me?"

"Oh, get over yourself," he muttered as he sat down on one of the beds. Then, speaking to me this time, "yes, without you. They called for me, asked for me, and said they wanted _me_ to show up, so I did."

"What's going on?" I asked him. He sighed and started to take off his shoes.

"Nothing."

"I wouldn't appreciate it if something was going on behind my back."

Raúl looked up at me with an expression that just begged, "give me a break." Beto and Pepe had turned the volume down on the TV and were now staring at Raúl and me. They wanted to be sure to witness the entire fight, right from the first punch.

He kept staring at me evenly for a moment, then finally he spoke again. "Let's not do this."

"No, let's not," I agreed. "But I doubt that meeting took all five hours you were gone."

"I was gone for four hours, it _did_ take that long, and if you don't want to do this why are you still pressing me?"

"Why are you challenging me?"

"_Me_? _You_'re the one-" He paused and looked over at Beto and Pepe. They were still staring. Raúl shrank under their serious gazes. "Sorry, Manny," he muttered. He threw a shoe across the room, but low towards the ground. It hit the bottom of the counter where his wallet lay.

I knew Raúl was angry and I shouldn't press him too much, but I couldn't let this go so easily. I had to know what had happened at the meeting. "Raúl, what did they say?" I asked again. He sighed.

"One of their girls is coming tomorrow," he replied. "That's all. Are you happy? You could have waited until tomorrow to hear that. If it were something more important, I would have told you."

I gritted my teeth and tried everything in my power not to turn this into a physical fight. My clenched fists stayed at my sides. It wasn't worth it.

After a pause he frowned and then contemplated something. "Sorry," he finally said, after thinking everything over for a moment. His face twisted in thought, and then he added, "Look, Manny, I _am_ sorry. I know I've been acting kind of uppity lately."

"Uppity?"

"I know I'm forgetting my place."

I nodded. "Yeah, you are. You've been acting this way all day."

Beto piped up. "He's not normally one to question your authority," he told me. "We always follow your orders, and Raúl doesn't complain or anything like that. He's a loyal soldier."

I believed Beto. It was probably my presence that made Raúl defensive. And honestly, I sort of understood. He wasn't used to having to report to someone, and now that I was here and outranked him, it made him uncomfortable. I understood that feeling very well. In fact, I felt the same way sometimes. I was the leader of the most important war the human race had ever seen, and I still had to write papers when my professors told me to. It was frustrating being influential in one realm, and at the bottom of the food chain in another.

"I know," I told him. But then I turned my head back to look at Raúl. "I'm sure he won't be any more trouble."

Raúl smirked and nodded. "I won't be any more trouble."

I tried to turn my attention to the TV, but it was still all in Spanish. They were watching some kind of sitcom, but I didn't recognize it. "What is this?"

"La Bella Más Fea," Pepe told me, never taking his eyes off the TV. The name didn't mean a thing to me. I wondered if Momo was having the same problem in the girls' hotel room; everyone speaking Spanish and her the only one who had no idea what was going on.

Beto and Pepe started talking rapidly in their native language, randomly laughing now and then. I assumed they were talking about the show, but who knew? I looked at Raúl. His eyes were closed, but I knew he wasn't asleep. He looked like he was just trying to relax.

I didn't want to pester him, but I couldn't believe it took four hours for the Americans to tell Raúl that another person was going to show up tomorrow. "Raúl..." I said quietly. His eyes opened and he looked at me expectantly. "I don't mean to nag, but you were gone a long time."

He seemed to be in a much better mood now as he nodded and had a slight grin on his face. "We went around the city. Shopping, had dinner."

"You and... the girl?" Continued nodding. "You look very pleased with yourself."

A sly grin this time. "We just went out to have a good time. Don't worry; nothing's going to happen between us."

I sighed. This was so stupid. We were in the middle of a war, trying to figure out how to assassinate the leader of the enemy, and he was going on dates with a girl who lived on the other side of the world? "Raúl, we don't have time for this," I said as I rubbed my forehead. "And you know that once this mission is over, you're going back to Andalucía and she's going back to America."

"I know, I know," he replied defensively. "I'm not a kid, and I'm not so naive as to be looking for my one and only true love. We're just having a little fun."

"Well, don't have too much fun," I replied. "And if anything – or rather, something _specific_ – happens in this room, you're out of this mission. Possibly out of this war."

"I completely understand," he insisted. He rolled over onto his side so that he was facing away from me. "We can go in the girls' room."

"Not in there, either," I added. He chuckled and closed his eyes again.

I sighed and stood up. Beto and Pepe didn't give me a second glance as I grabbed a cardkey and then left the room. I went to the door beside us and knocked on it, and Lola answered. She smiled when she saw me.

"Hey, Manny!" she greeted. "How are things next door?"

"They're fine," I replied. "Is Momo around?"

Lola nodded and opened the door wider, stepping aside to let me enter. The girls were being girls, sitting in a line. The front girl, Ana, was having her hair done by Momo, who was having her back massaged by Luz. They all turned to look at me, but Momo's expression was distinct excitement.

"Manny!" she cheered. "Wie geht's?"

"Gut," I replied, very aware of the Spanish-speakers around us. I found it rude to speak a language other people couldn't understand in front of them, which is why it bothered me when the Spanish boys in my room spoke Spanish with each other. So I led the conversation into English, even though it was only to request she leave the room. "Can we talk in the hallway?"

She shrugged. "Ja," she replied, sliding out from between Ana and Luz. She wasn't smiling anymore, but as she walked towards me she eventually looked up at me, and when our eyes met she gave me one last, short, fake smile. "Alles gut, ja?" she checked again. I sighed and shook my head, not saying "no," but rather, "it's complicated."

When we got into the hallway she stared at me intently. Lola politely closed the door, and I looked to my right to make sure the boys' door was closed as well. It was silly; I knew I'd shut it. But I couldn't stop my paranoia.

"What's wrong?" she asked me after I didn't speak for awhile.

"I'm just frustrated," I answered. "Things are so much more complicated than they were meant to be."

"What's complicated?"

"This alliance was supposed to be so easy. We thought we could just walk up to them and say, 'hey! We hate yeerks, too!' and we could all work together and be a big team. But that was so stupid. We should have known they'd have their own leader and their own way of doing things. We can't expect them to change their group, can't expect their leader to submit to me or any of us, in an instant."

"You're right," she said. "We thought they'd be thrilled to meet us, but they're... well, just as suspicious as we expected. Maybe that's ironic or something."

"There's a lot of tension between the groups."

"Maybe we should do something with them. Maybe we should all go out to dinner or something tomorrow after finding her."

I smiled. Momo was such a sweet girl. She was what anchored me to my sanity when everything was going crazy, which was exactly why I'd come to her now. The only problem was that she didn't understand the extent of our complications. She didn't understand the complications with Raúl. Nobody did, and nobody could. A heavily-guarded secret that only him and I knew, and the key to the tension between us. And I knew I couldn't tell Momo. It would only put her life – or worse, her very mental freedom – at risk.

"Maybe," I agreed. I looked at her and her smile grew just for me.

"Manny, everything's okay. We're going to do this just how we always planned. It's working out perfectly."

"I know." I shook my head and let out a long, strong breath of air. If only she knew. "But this is the first time Raúl and I have seen each other face-to-face." In my mind I added, _in a long time._

"What's the problem with him?"

"He... doesn't like taking orders." And honestly? I didn't like giving them. Not to him. I didn't feel like I could. Raúl was headstrong, but beyond that, he was a lot more intelligent than any of us recognized. I felt like whatever I told him, he knew something bigger and better, more efficient, easier, maybe even more effective. And he would just follow what I said – reluctantly, of course – knowing that he could never correct me. Not in front of everyone else. Telling him what to do made me uncomfortable.

Momo wasn't smiling anymore. "There's something you're not telling us," she whispered. I hesitated. She already knew we had a secret, so why bother pretending it didn't exist? Still, if I confirmed that and she were ever infested, the enemy would know. The enemy could not know, at any cost.

But I could _not_ lie to Momo.

"There is something," I admitted with great reluctance. "But I can't tell you."

"Who knows about it?"

"Momo, I want to tell you. But you know as well as I do that whatever information I give up to anyone is possibly information that I gave the enemy. If I tell you anything and you were taken... they would know it all. Please understand that as few people need to know about this as possible."

She looked away from me, her eyes falling some feet in front of her on the maroon hallway carpet. She nodded slowly, keeping her voice low and sounding somewhat hurt. "I understand."

"I'm sorry."

Still nodding slowly. "I know you are. I do. And it's okay. I just... hate everything this war as done to you. And me."

"Us?"

When she looked at me, she had tears in her eyes. It was enough to make me want to blurt the whole thing out, right there. I could not stand to see her cry. She saw the guilt in my face – she always saw all my emotions in my face – and said quickly, "Don't tell me. You're right. If I don't have to know, I shouldn't know. I just... I just wish things weren't that way, you know? But they are, and it's not your fault. Don't feel bad. Don't tell me."

Momo was not the average girl. She wasn't even the average person. She had a sweetness and tenderness all her own, an innocence that she tried so hard to hold onto even after getting involved in this war. Somehow she did it, and somehow I'd absorbed it from being around her. She kept me lighthearted, convinced me everything was going to be okay. In times hard and easy, she had a smile. She could laugh. She could teach me how to laugh and keep on being optimistic. But even she couldn't be happy with the way things had turned out for any of us.

"Bitte." Her voice was so quiet and soft.

I looked away from her. Couldn't stand those eyes... those childlike, submissive eyes that were blameless and untainted, fully trusting and loyal. Right now, the eyes I normally couldn't get enough of were filled with an unbearable pain. It was probably harder for me than it was for her. As always, she was untouched by all evils – the ones that surrounded her, the ones inside me, and the ones inside herself. After all her pain, she was concerned about _me._

If only she knew.

A/N: Right now I'm at a point in my writer-ship that I want to learn how to hook a reader in with more suspense, but I don't know how. It's always hard for me to tell if I've given enough away, or too much. So I'm hoping you guys will help me out with this, and let me know if I'm too obvious at what the "secret" is or not. Also, I'd like to know if BEFORE this chapter you knew there was a secret being held. I don't want it to seem like everything was fine and good and then BAM! Chapter 14, there's a secret. I'm hoping there was enough in previous chapters to make you suspicious, and this chapter confirmed - not introduced - that idea.

So just help me out and let me know where you're at. It's hard for me to keep track of what the reader knows at this point and what they don't know, or what they suspect, etc...

Also, I thrive on reviews and I will update much faster if I get more reviews. I'm not just saying that to bribe you. Because if I get reviews, I get more excited about the story, so I want to write more. So if you are reading but haven't been responding (btw, thanks for the review at last, xinfu. It was great to hear from you) please consider it. It'll only take a minute. :)


	15. Searching

MARCO

For some reason, my brilliance had been lacking once the plane landed.

Rachel told me we needed to watch out for Jake, but I didn't think much of it. "Jake's on our side," I told her. "We don't have to lie to him." She gave me one of her "come on, Marco, don't be an idiot" looks. But, like I said, intelligence lacking.

So we had absolutely _no_ plan on how to get out of the hotel the next morning.

"Where are you two going?" Jake asked us as we were just about out the door. Rachel and I turned around slowly. He was staring at us. Cassie was interested as well. Tobias? Outside somewhere, but I didn't know where. He promised he could find his way back. Ax was safe in the bathroom.

"We were just, uh, going for a walk," I offered. Rachel elbowed me a little. She knew that wasn't a safe excuse – someone might want to come along.

"You guys skipped out on exploring last night," he stated. He wasn't arguing with us, he was just kind of stating a fact. A fact that we knew.

"That's why we're going now," Rachel replied with a smile. Cassie stood up.

"I'll come with you so you can find your way back." She walked towards her shoes and started putting them on. I panicked, but stopped myself from speaking. My panic would show in my voice. Rachel better handle this.

"Cassie," she said quickly. Cassie looked up at her and waited for Rachel to continue into some kind of coherent sentence. Which she had a problem forming. "It's not – um... we don't need-"

I knew it wouldn't work. "The truth is, we're going to meet Raúl and Manny," I said. Rachel turned and gave me her angry look. She had a lot of looks. Jake lowered his eyebrows a little and looked kind of bothered. "We have some planning to do for the mission. But I promised them I wouldn't bring you all along."

"Why did you do that?" Jake demanded. Yeah, he was definitely bothered. His voice was low and clearly irritated.

"It's too crowded, man. There's 6 Spaniards, 2 Germans, and 6 Americans? Come on. The Germans will be there, but other than that, just 1 Spaniard. Then me and Rachel."

"Rachel stays and I go."

Her turn. "But Jake!" Rachel protested. "Marco and I already told them I'd be there. I've already met with Raúl. We have a head start on this mission."

"Why don't you tell me about it?"

"Because we have to be there in five minutes, dude," I butted in. "Just let her go. We'll handle it. Don't you trust us?"

I knew my best friend, and I knew he trusted me. So when I asked that question, there was only one answer. "Fine, Marco. But I want a full report when you guys get back. You've been sneaking around way too much."

"Sneaking?" I feebly repeated. Rachel put her hands on my shoulders and turned me around towards the door. She turned her head back and said, "thanks, we'll tell you later. Bye!"

We rushed out the door and she shut it fast, but not hard. "You're such an idiot," she spat at me as we walked towards the elevator. "I told you Jake wouldn't let us just leave without some kind of excuse. Now he's suspicious. _And_ he's going to expect your mom to come back with us. He'll find out eventually that she's dead. Then what?"

"We'll tell her she tried to escape, there was some kind of accident, and we had to kill her," I replied as I pressed the elevator button. "We can do that any day: first, second, or third. Whenever we wanna go home."

Rachel looked at me with big eyes, like she was surprised I actually knew what was going on. She should have given me more credit than that; after all, I formed a plan before she did. "When are you planning on telling him the truth? Once we get home?"

"Jake can't handle the truth."

The elevator opened and we both walked in. She beat me to pushing the button for the first floor, and once the doors closed she crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "I told you I don't want you to bullshit me, Marco. We both know you can't live with a lie between you and your best friend. I know you think you're tough, but you have some moral strand in you."

"Moral strand?"

"Which reminds me," she added, still tapping her foot. "_Exactly_ why are you doing this? You don't have to, you know."

I never liked opening up, especially not to someone like Rachel. Rachel and I weren't close. I mean, yeah, we'd saved each others' lives a few times. But we always joked about it. Nothing between her and I was, or was even meant to be, serious. Ever. Jake and I were close, so we could talk about serious and not-so-serious things. Cassie? She _would_ talk about serious things, but it wouldn't be right to. Her and I talked about basically nothing except business. Rachel? In the middle. I could talk to her if it wasn't anything too heavy, but if it was, forget it.

But I couldn't joke this off, because she was looking at me really hard and I knew she wouldn't let it go until she had an answer. And to be honest, I didn't have one. So I looked down, trying to ignore the fact that she was glaring daggers at me.

"I know I don't have to," I replied quietly.

"Why don't we just ask Manny to-"

"Manny's not going to budge on this, and it's not worth us fighting them over her. We're on the same side, us and Manny. We might as well act like it."

I saw her out of the corner of my eye; she uncrossed her arms and looked up at the corner of the elevator. When it dinged and opened up she walked out before I did. "I guess," she told me as we walked through the lobby towards the doors. "You can do what you want."

But what _did_ I want? It was the same old thing. I remembered going through this question over and over. Do I have the strength to do it? Should I even do it? Maybe it wouldn't come to it. But if it didn't, I'd never know. Maybe this was more about proving something to myself.

Proving what? That I have no soul? That I can kill my mother? What kind of statement was that?

_Don't wuss out on this, man,_ I told myself. _You made a decision, so stick to it. Manny will see this as a promise to keep a united front. We need this for an alliance. We just need this._

But the question still bothered me: was I only trying to prove that I was heartless? What kind of a person was I? Maybe I didn't even _want_ to be the kind of guy who could kill his mother.

_Visser One, Visser One, she's freaking Visser One._ I couldn't let myself get to me.

I must have sighed, because she looked at me weird again. She was doing that a lot lately. "Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't have to-"

"Just shut up, okay?" I snapped. "I have everything under control."

"I just don't underst-"

"Because we need this alliance!" I replied harshly. "Because Jake's going insane trying to call all the shots. Because it's not worth arguing with Manny the Brick Wall. And because it's important that everything goes smoothly with these new guys."

She didn't say anything else. The whole 10-minute walk.

Not that I was a great conversationalist.

When we got there, Manny, Momo, Raúl, and Lola were waiting for us. Just those four. I wondered where the rest of the Spaniards were.

Manny came up to us and shook our hands, smiling. He was a friendly guy. I also had a feeling he wouldn't support us going behind our leader's back, so for some reason, I felt like I was going behind Manny's, too. And for some reason I felt worse about it with Manny than with Jake.

We talked with them for awhile and tried to iron out a better plan. Lola said we should maybe bait them with some kind of International Resistance "here we are" trap, but it was sketchy, and risky. None of us were sure why she was even in Spain. Manny had a theory that she was there to kill off the Spanish group like they did the Italians, but nobody knew for sure. Rachel and I knew that Erek hadn't been much help in that area when we were back home, either.

Final plan? Search and destroy, basically. We did know one thing for sure: she wasn't supposed to leave Madrid. That meant there were only five and a half million people – who were also Hispanic – who we had to look through. Piece of cake.

Rachel and I pointed out that the car would be the givaway. A lot of people walked, but we knew she had a car, and we knew what it looked like. Surprise surprise, Raúl recited the license plate number off the top of his head. Kid must've been taking notes at the airport. The car could be in a ramp, so everyone except me was supposed to go through the ramps while I flew around and tried to find either the car or her. Rachel was on the ground in her mixed human morph so that she could communicate with me. For the others, and for herself. Though we didn't use the private thought-speak as much as we thought we would. In fact, I don't think we used it at all.

An hour and a half passed. I landed on the top of a building and demorphed. Started to re-morph the bird, but then I heard someone coming up the stairs. For a second I stopped, my concentration breaking, but then I continued. Better for a person to find a bird up here than an American punk kid.

It was three men; two in suits, one in a green polo and jeans. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the suit guys were going to kick Polo's butt. Especially because Polo stumbled out of the door for the stairs first, tumbling around on the cement. One of the suit guys kicked him around a little more. I couldn't help but wonder if this was the Spanish mafia.

They yelled at him in Spanish, and he whimpered back. Rachel said something, but I tried to ignore her. I didn't care about the rest of them at the moment. I was so sick of the whole thing... sick of the war, Yeerks, my mother the visser, Manny, Jake, Rachel, all of them. So sick of everything. Witnessing what I thought was the Spanish mafia rough up a guy on a Madrid rooftop was one of the more normal events of my life, compared to most.

When a suit guy pulled out a .44, I opened my wings by instinct. But I closed them soon enough, because I wanted to stay. My flapping drew their attention for a second and they turned, but when Polo inched away they were back on him in a flash. They both knelt down and the one put the gun to Polo's head.

((Marco, what are you doing?)) She was annoyed. And angry.

((Just give me a minute, okay?))

((Quit playing around. We have a lot of ground to cover.))

((I cover a lot of ground in the air, believe me. I just need a minute.))

((What's going on?))

I listened close. Spanish, Spanish, blah blah blah, Spanish, more Spanish...

"...Visser..."

I didn't move, but my heart skipped a beat. That word was the same in every language.

Spanish, Spanish... "...Andalite..."

I really wished Raúl or Lola was here. What were they saying? One thing for sure: they were all controllers. All three of them, even Polo. He was way too cool with them talking about aliens in front of him.

The suits chuckled. The one guy relaxed his gun and helped Polo to his feet. The suits walked back through the door, and Polo followed them a little bit behind. He was nervous, but he had nowhere else to go. We were, after all, on the roof.

((I found controllers,)) I said. ((Sheer, dumb luck. But they might take me where we want to go.))

There was a pause, then Rachel said, ((Manny says go for it, but I don't know. Just because they're controllers doesn't mean they'll talk with Visser One. She's too high up.))

((She might at least be in this building,)) I insisted. ((We have to try.))

Another pause, this time longer. It felt like a few minutes, but it was probably really only one or less. But finally Rachel said, ((Morph something and get in there. And be careful.))

A/N: I just want you all to know that I work early tomorrow morning, but I stayed up extra-late to finish this chapter just for you. So be happy. :-)


	16. The House of Slugs

MARCO

I'd lost the suits and Polo when I got into the building. Cockroaches don't have great eyesight, which was one of the many reasons I hated morphing bugs, and even small things in general. I hated not being able to see, and I also hated worrying about getting stepped on or sprayed with bug spray, on top of my normal fear of being infested. It was just way too much to worry about. But I figured a gorilla would look suspicious.

One thing that worried me was the fact that I had no idea where Rachel was, and she had no idea where I was. We could still communicate, but if one of us got into trouble, we wouldn't be able to help each other aside from acting as a cheerleader. That wasn't comforting, so I was trying to be more careful than normal.

After roughly fifteen minutes of scurrying around, I found a vent and crawled inside. ((Rachel, this isn't working,)) I said. ((I can't hear or see a thing.))

((What are you?))

((A roach.))

((Well, there's your problem,)) she replied. ((Just pretend to be a controller.))

((In spandex?))

She was running out of ideas, and so was I. For once, I felt like I'd hit a dead end. Jake would have known what to do. What were we without our leader?

((Our only other choice is for you to go gorilla and let them know the Andalite bandits know where they are,)) she finally said. ((Can you handle that? Are they all human-controllers?))

((Yeah, I think so.)) I ran back out into the hallway and darted around, trying to find a more secluded place where I could demorph. Finally I entered underneath a door. The other side was completely dark, quiet, and even humid. The roach mind was happy, but I sure wasn't.

((Raúl says to tell him what intersection the building's at, and we can come back later with firepower,)) she told me.

((I like that idea better.))

It took me forever to get back to the roof, just because I couldn't find my way around. One of the many reasons I hated bug morphs. Small animals like rats weren't _as_ bad because at least they had better hearing and vision, but they were still somewhat frustrating. But bugs were, without a doubt, the most miserable morphs of them all.

But eventually I did find my way back. When I demorphed, I found that the street signs were too far away for me to see. Oh well. An osprey morph would take care of that.

((Calle de San Ricardo and Calle de la Paz,)) I reported.

A pause, and then ((He says you're at the... the Casa de Postas. House of Slugs?))

((Are you kidding me? They must have a sense of humor. They're all controllers.))

I heard her laugh. ((Yeah, I guess. It's been called that for centuries.)) Pause. ((Raúl says it's where administrative assistants to the government stay.))

((Hmm, so higher ups?))

((Yep.))

((We done here?))

((I'll race you to McDonald's.))

((No fair, you have the tour guide.))

Me, Rachel, Raúl, Lola, Manny, and Momo were sitting in one of the booths at McDonald's with enough French fries to supply the starving kids in all of Africa. Raúl footed the bill. If you can call what you pay at McDonald's a "bill."

"So you found the visser?" Manny asked me. I shook my head.

"No, I found controllers."

"En la Casa de Postas," Raúl said quickly. It too me a minute to figure out what he'd even said, just because it was so fast, and with his Spanish accent. "That's an important building. And they don't give important hosts to unimportant Yeerks." He took a look around the table like any good public speaker would, making sure he caught everyone's eye. "If she's anywhere, she's with other high-ranking Yeerks."

"We have to do more surveillance before we know for sure," Lola said. I'd heard Raúl and Lola each speak English before, but hearing them next to each other seemed off. They had slightly different accents.

I wanted to point it out to Rachel, but there was no way. I'd have to tell her later. Maybe it was just my imagination. Besides, Raúl was originally from Madrid, right? And who knew where Lola was from? They probably just had regional Spanish accents.

Still. My cynical side – which is most of me – couldn't let it go.

Raúl looked at Manny, almost challenging. Daring him to do something. I wondered what Rachel was thinking about the way they interacted. He'd stopped talking, but he sure wasn't submissive. And Manny? He avoided looking back at Raúl.

"She's probably somewhere in there," he said. Raúl looked back to the fries and grabbed one. Relaxed. He won.

I hated the way this was going. Way too much was wrong. Raúl and Lola sounded too different to be from the same place. And why was Manny allowing himself to be treated so badly? And why would Momo never talk?

I looked at Momo to force a word out of her. "What do you think?"

Her hand below her throat, taken aback. Surprised I'd dare ask. "Me? It doesn't matter what I think."

"Raúl put _his_ word in," I replied with a shrug. Yeah, there was an edge in my voice. An irritation. I looked out of the corner of my eye to make sure I saw his reaction. His face twisted in anger that I'd say that, question his place. Maybe put him on the same level as Momo.

"Well, he's... he shouldn't be talking. This is Manny's job."

"What _do_ you think?" Manny asked her, trying to take down the heat a little. Make it seem like he didn't mind when the pawns like Raúl and Momo gave their opinions.

"It's up to you," she replied. Then I knew her equivalent in the Animorphs. She was Ax. She just had to start calling him "Prince Jake."

"Well, I'm sure she's in there," Manny repeated. "We just have to find her."

Raúl pointed at Rachel and me. "Their team can do that." I resented the flippancy with which he volunteered us. As though we were his troops that he could command around. So, I decided to play hardball, just for fun.

"Hold on, we did our part," I said. "We found the building. I don't remember agreeing to –"

"You said you'd kill her, right?" he demanded of me, eyebrows raised. He looked to Momo. "Did he say that?"

She looked away and refused to answer.

"I think Marco just means that we're going to need help," Rachel explained. "Especially since we don't speak Spanish. If anyone tried to talk to us, we'd be dead. One of the Spaniards is going to have to go in if we want to figure out where she is."

"Impossible," Raúl replied. "We can't morph. You think they'll let kids in there? Those are government officials. I'm eighteen."

"But we can't-"

"Just don't say anything," he told her. "You'll be fine. You might need the morph of a Spaniard, just because... well, so you don't stand out."

"We don't like using human morphs," Rachel tried. Raúl rolled his eyes.

"The only difference between humans and animals is we wear hats," he spat. "Don't be so self-righteous."

I was liking him less and less.

"Fine, I'll go," I finally conceded. "But, I will need backup." I looked to my left, right at Rachel. "And I'll definitely need you."

She nodded. "Of course. But... what are you..."

"Battle morphs. Let's just rip it apart."

Rachel raised her eyebrows. "Are you kidding me? That sounds like a plan I would come up with."

"It's not really a plan." I reached up and scratched the top of my head nervously. This could go wrong in approximately twenty different ways, maybe more. But I just didn't know what else to do. Maybe Jake would've known. Maybe we should have just told him right away and never gone behind his back. I didn't know if Rachel and I could take whatever was in there.

"Rachel and I... might have a hard time," I admitted. Raúl nodded.

"Say no more; we can give you backup."

"You can?"

He nodded. "I can supply guns for however many people you need. We can take care of the human controllers, which... should be most of the people in there, right?"

What was he saying? He was planning on going into a government building and shooting the place up? Was he crazy? "Hold on there, sparky, you're gonna throw down the Yeerks with a _pistol?_"

"Why not?"

I chuckled. "Let's hope there aren't any Hork-Bajir in there, or you'll run out crying. Look, I know you guys think you're hardcore, but you haven't seen ninety percent of this war. Do you know what a Dracon Beam is?" Blank looks from all three of them. "You know what Taxxons are?"

"They're aliens," Lola said simply.

"What do they look like?"

A blank look on her face. I looked to Manny and Momo, and they had the same hollow stare.

Raúl was another story. I wasn't scaring him. He knew everything I was talking about, but he didn't want to admit it. Maybe he couldn't admit it. But everything I said was going through his brain, had already gone through, and he knew what he was getting himself into. He wasn't scared, and that worried me. He must've had some serious firepower.

"Guys, this isn't playtime. I know you've done some stuff, seen some stuff, but it's not even half of what I've seen or done." I paused and took in a deep breath. Where was this speech going? "Anyways, you can't just go in with guns blazing."

"That's what _you_ were planning on doing, right?" Raúl challenged. I twisted in my seat.

"That's different."

"I know what I'm doing," Raúl insisted. "And we will be there when you guys go in. Tomorrow?"

Rachel was biting her lip and looking nervous. I considered asking her what was wrong, but then I decided she probably would have said so already if it was really important. I could ask later. "Fine, tomorrow. Nine?"

Raúl nodded. "Nine, right here."

A/N: Tobias is coming. I promise.


	17. Revelation

MARCO

"Is it just me, or is Raúl out of his mind?" I asked Rachel as we walked back to the hotel. She nodded.

"I think he's seriously crazy," she replied. "In fact, I think all these guys are crazy. They have no idea who they're dealing with. It's like they don't even realize what we're _actually_ doing here."

"I'm most worried about Raúl," I said. "I don't know about the others, but that kid is cracked. Did he say anything off to you during your little date?"

"No, he seemed perfectly normal."

"Hmm."

She put some blond hair behind her ear, but it blew away from it quickly. I don't know when it got windy, but it wasn't that way when I'd been flying about an hour earlier. Her hair was flying all over the place, and she continually tried in vain to keep it down. And she still looked like a supermodel.

"And where's he going to get all those guns?" she asked me. We stopped walking at an intersection and let the cars pass by in front of us. Weird, I'd expected cars in Spain to look different from cars at home. Look more European or something. But that was so stupid... we had European cars back home, along with Asian cars, and whatever other kinds of cars there were. The same went for Spain. The traffic looked just like traffic back in the states.

"You know what I noticed?" I replied. "When him and Lola speak English... they sound different."

"They're from different parts of Spain," she replied flippantly. I shook my head.

"I know, but that's not right. Do you really think I'd be able to detect _regional_ Spanish accents?" No answer. "I can't even tell the difference between a Spanish and a Mexican accent. Much less southern and northern Spain."

"Madrid's in the center," she corrected.

"Whatever."

"And actually..." She stopped talking, then looked left and right. No cars coming. We both stepped out into the street. "He said he's from Córdoba."

"So?"

"So Córdoba is sorta near the center of Spain, too. From what I gather."

I smirked. "I told you something was off about their accents. They should sound the same."

"Maybe one's more hick-ish."

"They're not more hick-ish," I insisted. There was no way I would be able to tell the difference between the two. "He's not from Spain. I doubt Spanish is even his native language."

"But that would mean..." We reached the other side of the street and she stopped on the sidewalk. I stopped and looked at her, confused at why she wasn't walking. I realized she was just thinking way too hard when she said, "Marco, he's _faking_ an accent. He wants us to think he's native."

That was the only logical conclusion. He had a Spanish-sounding accent, but something was definitely off about it. And the only way we would be able to detect that would be if –

"He's American," I muttered. She raised her eyebrows.

"What?" Rachel demanded. "But he looks-"

"He's like me," I explained. "Spanish heritage, sure, but he's American, born and raised. I don't know why he's in Spain or why he thinks he has to fake an accent, but he's gotta be American. That's the only way we would have been able to tell... he had a slight American accent."

Rachel clapped her hands together loudly. "That's why he used words that I thought only an American would know!"

"And that's..." I paused. There was still too much unanswered. Like, where was he going to get all those firearms he talked about? And why wasn't he scared like the other three when I talked about Hork-Bajir and Taxxons and Dracon beams? And why would Manny ever listen to him?

"No, we still don't know a lot," I corrected myself. "He's got more of a history with this war than we realize, though. Definitely more of a history than the rest of that international resistance."

We started walking again. The hotel was only a block away, but we were running out of revelations, so we didn't walk slowly to save alone time. We'd hit a dead end with the epiphanies.

"Maybe he was a controller," she suggested. I shook my head.

"That still doesn't explain a lot. Why is he an undercover Spaniard?"

"I don't know," she admitted.

We reached the hotel and went to the room. When we walked in, surprise surprise, the rest were sitting around.

"How'd it go?" Jake asked.

"You guys are always just sitting here," I stated as I took my shoes off. Jake shrugged.

"There's nothing else to do. We don't know the language, we don't have money, don't know our way around..."

"Great point."

Rachel made her way over to the bed where Cassie and Jake were sitting. She sat next to Cassie on the edge and looked at the TV. "You're watching... Spanish soap operas," she stated dryly. Cassie nodded.

"Like he said, nothing to do."

Jake pointed the remote at the TV and turned it off, then turned to me expectantly. It was go time. "So, what's the deal?"

I sat on the other bed, the one with Tobias and Ax, both in human morph. I briefly wondered why he didn't direct the question to Rachel, but who was I kidding? It was obvious that I was heading this up.

"We found her," I began. "She's staying in a building for government officials, who are also all controllers. Tomorrow we're going to go in and capture her."

"Just you and Rachel?"

_Well, Jake, Raúl happens to be a psychopath who has enough firearms for the Spanish army, so he graciously offered backup._ "The other guys are going to help."

He frowned. "I don't know, Marco. Are you sure you don't want more of us to come along? We don't know how well we can trust these guys yet. I'm sure they're not controllers, but that doesn't mean they don't have their own agendas."

_Yeah, we noticed._ "That's why Rachel's there," I replied. "A grizzly and a gorilla can take a few of these kids. Don't worry about it."

"I'd feel better if I came with."

"Jake, trust me, they're harmless." That was probably the biggest lie I'd told yet. "Manny's got everyone wrapped around his finger –" Nope, _that_ was the biggest lie – "and you know Manny. The smiling guy?"

Jake sighed, but he tipped backwards on the bed onto his back. Relaxing. "Yeah, I suppose Manny's not a huge threat to us."

"And he's got everyone else under control," I emphasized.

"Yeah."

I looked at Rachel and she smirked back at me. We both knew we had Jake sold on our plan. Unless, of course, he actually found out the truth. But this was what I wanted for Jake. I wanted him relaxing. I wanted him to just lay there, knowing that ol' Marco had everything covered and he didn't have to worry. Jake had been handling every mission since day one, and that was years ago. It was time one of us helped him out with the leader thing. It was wearing on him way too much, and he deserved a mission off.

Besides, I had the right to take this mission by the horns. I had a right to take care of this. To kill Visser One.

A/N: I know Tobias is still in the shadows, but please be patient. I _do_ have big plans for him in this story, but he can't come out of those shadows just yet. Trust me.


	18. Sam

MARCO

Jake "forced" us to tell him "everything." But really, we only told him what we'd been saying before: that I convinced Manny to let us capture her and starve the Yeerk, we went to find her, succeeded, and we were going the next day to make the capture.

He wanted to know what Rachel and Raúl had talked about, and that was very much her problem. But she held up well under the questioning, telling him that it started out as business (wondering how she could help with the mission and such), but evolved into hanging out, as friends. They started to talk about the basics of this war in general, strategy in general, the politics of the whole thing... in general. Chatting about what the war's done to their social lives, and that kind of semi-casual-but-still-talking-about-the-main-topic kind of thing. It was a good story.

I think Rachel and I had learned that the best lies are half-truths. When you tell a half-truth, it's a lot more believable, because, hey, it's kinda true. A lot of things I'd told Jake were basically true – that I'd been gone because I was meeting with Manny and the gang, that we found controllers at the Casa de Postas, and all that. Rachel did the same thing, telling him that her and Raúl talked a lot about the war. I'm sure that was true, but she didn't tell him why she really met with him; to shamelessly sell herself like a little slut so she could get information out of him.

They went out again that night. I don't know what happened, but I figured if it was important, she would have told me. She didn't say much, so I didn't ask. She'd been through enough questioning. Besides, if I pulled her aside to figure out what happened, Jake would only get more suspicious.

The next day was the big day. I couldn't sleep the night before, because I was way too busy thinking about stuff like what kind of person I am and why I feel the need to do this. It was largely a masculine thing, I decided. I wanted to prove to myself that my duty in war was more important than my emotions. And I think, in a way, everyone wants to prove that, it's just that we have different limits. But I didn't want limits. I wanted to be the very best, most dedicated soldier. Nothing in between me and the enemy except one giant, black, furry gorilla fist. So that's how it was going to be.

When Rachel and I walked to McDonald's the next day, she mentioned her second date with the psychotic undercover American-turned-Spaniard.

"I know why it was so easy for me to score a date with him last time," she told me.

"Because your hair was down?"

"Because he saw an opportunity. He wants to pump me for information just as much as I want to from him. He's trying to use me."

"What did you tell him?"

Rachel shrugged. "I lied."

She didn't offer any more details. I didn't ask for them.

We got there and saw the usual crew – Raúl, Lola, Manny, and Momo, with one change. They each had backpacks. The backpacks were all different colors and styles, but it looked like they all had the same load inside.

"What are those for?" I asked as Rachel and I sat down. Raúl put a hand on my shoulder and stood up.

"Get up," he told me. "We're gonna talk."

What was this? Change in plans? I looked at Rachel for some kind of input about what we should do. She shrugged and stood up.

"What are we doing?" she asked him. I stood with the rest of them, but we didn't walk anywhere yet.

"We have to iron out the plan," Raúl explained. "You're going to have to know what we're doing, and we have to know what you're doing."

I spoke up. "I thought we were all going in and-"

Raúl gave me a sharp, stern look. "Do you know what we have in these bags? Follow me."

He turned and started walking, and we had no choice but to follow him.

He led us back into the building that we'd entered when we first met them. We went back into the basement with cement everything – ceiling, floors, walls. There was nothing else inside of it. After shutting and locking the heavy metal door, Raúl squatted down and unzipped his backpack. He pulled out a ski mask and held it up for Rachel and I to see. "For obvious reasons," he stated. Set it aside, then pulled out a Remington Magnum. "For obvious reasons," he continued. Set it on top of the mask and grabbed what looked like a sticker sheet. "Fake fingerprints," he told us. "Better than gloves. Instead of not leaving prints, this way it makes them think they actually have a lead, when they don't. Distracts them longer."

I nodded and looked at Rachel. She didn't look happy.

He pulled out a ball of something I can only compare to cotton, but it looked rougher than cotton. "We'll use this to scrub down all visible areas – face, arms – to get rid of skin cells so we can avoid shedding them as best as possible. Also, shower caps underneath the ski masks, to make sure we don't shed any hair." He kicked the bag towards me. "You can search it if you think I'm hiding anything else."

I looked down at it. It was open, and I could see without even touching it that there was nothing else in there – at least not in the larger, main part. There was one other front pouch, but to be honest, I didn't see why he'd have anything else in there.

"That's okay," I replied. "Why do you think we'd want to do that?"

He smirked. "I know you don't trust me."

_It has something to do with the fact that you're faking a nationality, but maybe you'd rather not talk about that,_ I thought. But I didn't want to let on that we knew he wasn't from Spain, so I just shook my head. "Not totally, but I don't see why you'd have anything else in that bag."

He nodded. "Okay, well, the plan's simple. You two can just go in and we'll find a place to hide. When you need us, tell us in thoughtspeak, and we'll be in there right away."

"Sounds good."

"Let's get to work."

We scrubbed down the four of them, but didn't suit them up. We would go to the place first, then after they found their hiding spot they would suit up with their shower caps and ski masks.

When we got there we found a nearby ally that had some kind of rectangle "dent" into the brick building. We looked at the windows on the building that faced it and made sure the blinds were closed on all of them. Looked up and down the ally, making sure nobody was there. Then Raúl, Lola, Manny, and Momo stood in front of Rachel and me while we morphed into a grizzly and a gorilla. They winced when they heard the sound, which I'd almost forgotten about because I was so used to it. When I say "they winced" I mean, of course, only Manny, Momo, and Lola. Raúl never flinched.

((Guard our clothes,)) I told them. ((Put them in your bags or something. It's all we have.))

Manny nodded. "We will. Good luck."

((How are we getting in?)) Rachel asked.

((The door, silly,)) I replied. I looked to the abridged resistance members. ((Good luck, guys.))

"Same to you," Manny replied. He was speaking now. That's what he was: the speaker. It was clear that Raúl was the real leader.

((Marco, I think two animals going through the front door will attract unwanted attention from non-controllers,)) Rachel put in. I paused and thought about it.

((You're right.)) I couldn't believe how badly my brain was working. Duh. If I saw a grizzly and a gorilla go through the door of a government official lodging house, I'd be pretty suspicious.

((I think we're idiots,)) she added.

"Go through a window," Lola suggested. Not a great idea, but not bad.

((Let's do it,)) Rachel said. She looked at me expectantly, like I had to agree. Like I was... the leader?

((Are you _asking_ me?)) I demanded in private thoughtspeak. ((You? Rachel? Miss headstrong? Are you asking me for permission to do something?))

((You're kind of the leader,)) she replied. Then, with a little irritation, ((By the way, "let's do it" is not a question.))

((Yeah, yeah.)) I grabbed the end of the fire escape ladder and yanked it down. I climbed to the forth floor, Rachel behind me, three foreign kids gawking at us as we climbed. Raúl didn't even look up. He spit on the ground and then squatted down. He unzipped the front, smaller pouch of his backpack.

((Rachel, Raúl's got something,)) I said, with a little too much panic in my voice.

((What?))

((I thought the front of his backpack was empty, but he's pulling something-))

((Don't be so paranoid. It's a cigarette, Marco.))

I looked back down at them and sure enough, Raúl was lighting it as we stood on the ladder right around the forth floor. I breathed a sigh of relief.

((You can never be too careful,)) I muttered.

((You think he's hiding something?))

((Something? Please. I think he's hiding _everything._))

With that, I punched the window and it shattered. An alarm sounded right away as I hopped into the room, Rachel right behind me. It looked like an office, but it had two sets of everything – desks, filing cabinets, computers. Nobody was in the room.

((An alarm goes off but we have no heads to knock,)) I said as I ran towards the door that led into the building.

((Should we split up?)) she asked.

((No. I don't trust Raúl and his "backup."))

I looked up and down the hall. Nothing.

((Where is everybody?!)) I demanded. I was starting to get annoyed. Here I was, ready for a fight, an alarm going off, and I had no one to kill.

((Go _somewhere,_)) she harshly advised. I went right and she followed me down the hall. We ended up finding three guys walking together. They heard us, whirled around, and stated "andalite!"

I put my huge black hands in between them – two on one side, one on the other – and threw them against the walls. They were maybe dead. They were definitely unconscious.

We continued down the halls and met a few foes, but it was nothing we couldn't handle. So far, no sign of my mom. Nobody even said "protect the visser" or anything like that. For all we knew, she'd left Spain already.

But I knew that wasn't true. I could tell she was close; call it son's intuition.

I wasn't worried until I saw the huge pack of controllers standing together, the ones in the front holding Dracon Beams.

((Heads up!)) I told Rachel as I dodged left. She was behind me somewhere, but I didn't know where. Wasn't watching. I was more concerned with myself at this point.

If there's one thing a gorilla is bad at, it's dodging. I had to reach them for hand-to-hand combat. My brain screamed at me to go _away_ from the deadly beams, but I knew strategically that, even though I didn't want to be closer, it was the only way to shop the shooting. So I pressed on as best I could, until I lost half my right arm.

((Aaaah!)) I shouted in pain as the bottom half burned and melted off my body. It stung, and as tough as gorillas are, open wounds always sting badly no matter what body you're in. ((I'm starting to rethink-))

((Marco! Hork-Bajir!))

Which was all we needed.

((Raúl, it's your time,)) I told him outside. No confirmation that they received the message. No assurance help was on the way. I just had to call to him and hope, trust.

Trust Raúl? Yeah right. They were probably hanging out at his house right now. If they weren't planning a way to take out Rachel and I and make Jake think it was an accident.

The gorilla roared. I say he did, because I didn't think to, but he thought it was natural. It's just as well; a few human-controllers were startled. Not startled enough to drop their weapons, though.

"Fire, you fools!" one of them shouted. They leveled their beams, but then-

((It's me!))

Tobias?

The Hork-Bajir ran into all the controllers, a full-on body slam. They tumbled over in a mess. It looked like the Hork-Bajir had used himself to go bowling.

((Tobias!)) Rachel said. ((That's you?))

The human-controllers were so disoriented now that they were basically defenseless. They tried to scramble away, but Tobias was taking them out two at a time, slamming heads together to knock them out. I decided to help.

((Jake had me follow you,)) he explained.

((Obviously,)) I replied.

((Where's the visser?))

Moment of truth?

((She's in here somewhere,)) Rachel replied. ((We just don't know where.))

((Okay, let's take a look around.))

((We were,)) I replied. ((And you didn't have to come. I had those guys under control. I only called for Raúl because Rachel told me there was Hork-Bajir, and I didn't know how many. If you weren't here to get us in a panic, we would have been just fine-))

((Calm down,)) Tobias said. ((I didn't come because I thought you needed me. I came because Jake told me to. Besides, you _did_ lose an arm.))

((What, that?)) I shrugged to one side, lifting the lame arm up a bit. ((I did that on purpose to add to the drama of it all.))

((Right.))

The next thirty minutes were incredibly boring. We just walked around the building trying to find some kind of form of life. Once in awhile we found someone cowering in a corner, and we took turns roughing them up a little bit. I think we poked our heads in every room of the fourth and fifth floors. By the time we got to the sixth I felt like going home.

((This is a waste of time,)) I muttered. ((There's no one else here.))

((We should be sure,)) Tobias insisted.

((By now everyone who's worth anything has left,)) I replied.

((Where's Raúl and Manny?)) Rachel wondered.

((They probably left, too,)) I replied. ((I'm telling you, there's no one here.))

Right on cue Tobias opened a door and we found her – Visser One, tied, gagged, and even blindfolded.

((You were saying?)) Rachel asked.

I was so surprised to see her that I almost blurted out "mom!" It didn't make sense. Who had done this to her? And where did they go?

Then the door slammed shut and I heard a bar go down on the other side. A bar we hadn't seen or noticed when we came into the room.

Whoever was messing with us was an idiot. Tobias alone probably could have taken them, and Rachel and I definitely could have done some damage. But then I heard a voice and it was familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

"You're going to want to demorph," he stated.

I looked at the other two. They didn't move, didn't change.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," the voice added.

All of a sudden it was like I was holding onto an electric fence. Shocks were running through my body, and at first all I felt was pain. When I saw Rachel start to change, I remembered: duh, Marco, demorph like the man said. I wondered if it was a controller, if they knew our secret now. But why was the voice so annoyingly familiar, yet so hard to place?

Tobias demorphed, too, but he started later than I did. I think he was more reluctant to do so, but none of us could fight with the electric shocks.

"Good. The second you start to morph, the shocks start again. Great invention, isn't it?"

((Be careful not to talk, Marco,)) Tobias said. ((Your mom will recognize your voice. But who's on the PA system?))

"It's Raúl," Rachel replied. "Without his accent."

I snapped my fingers. _Of course! I knew it was familiar!_

To the voice, Rachel said, "You sound different without your phony accent."

He laughed. "You're sharp for picking that up, but I'm surprised you didn't take your knowledge one step farther."

"What do you mean?"

Rachel whispered something, but I didn't hear what she said. I looked at Tobias, but I don't know why. I guess I expected his face to give something away to me as to where he was in understanding all this, or even to help me out since I was about as confused as I've ever been. It slipped my mind that he was a hawk, and hawk faces don't give away anything.

"I guess I can give it up now that I have the visser," he said. "I'm Sam."

A/N: The end of this story! I'll be putting a sequel up, hopefully within a week. Sorry this update took so long to get up, but I did a lot of thinking about how I was going to play out the scene, and I also moved back to school so that took up some of my time as well! But now I'm settled in and everything's good, so I will hopefully get you guys a sequel as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading!


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